Across the Line
by startscribbling12
Summary: Roxas cut himself off from the world after loosing his best friend. He seeks relief from his pain in unhealthy ways. Enter Namine: a girl who just may be able to mend his broken heart. But to do that-she must ignore her own suffering.
1. Chapter 1

It wasn't that much of a change from my hometown. The buildings were a bit taller than the ones from where I am from. The atmosphere seemed the same though. It was all about work. Almost all the people you would see walking down the street were either students or business men. In this city, drugs and gangs exist and seem to only cause havoc amongst themselves. Most people here tend not to see violence, or so I have heard. All everyone does is focus on their jobs and the only people that see violence are the police and the gangs. Most people haven't seen death. I am unlike most people. I have seen death. I am Namine Manzano, age 17, and I witnessed my parent's death.

I was only five at the time so I only remember bits and pieces. Every so often, I have a dream and a flashback. Slowly, I am piecing together the cause of their death. Because of their death, I was placed in foster home after foster home until I was finally adopted when I was thirteen. My adoptive parents are nice people, but they tend to ignore me. I am faced with the challenge of caring for myself.

There are five islands that make up the area that I live on. I live in the middle most island, Colony Island, the center of entertainment and business. The other islands contain the airport, small neighborhoods, and of course schools. Northwood Heights is a small island north of mine. It is filled with crime, nightclubs, and strip clubs.

"Namine," I was called to attention from the backseat of large car I was in. We were turning off of Columbus St, and onto Ruby, where we lived.

"Yes?" My soprano voice rang in the car. My hands were folded neatly onto my lap as I looked at them. I tried to place life into my eyes, but I always held the same empty expression on my face.

"You may pick your own room in the house, but just letting you know there is a room with an art studio connected to it." My adoptive mother, Jean, told me. I knew it was just a reason for them to keep me occupied so they wouldn't be bothered with me.

"Your new school uniform should be arriving tomorrow." My adoptive father, Sam, added. I nodded silently, gazing out the window. The house we were moving into was two stories high, but very wide and long. It was made of red brick and the garden was in very good health. The driveway was long and rounded as we pulled up to the front door. We were living in one of the most successful neighborhoods in this area.

I walked into the house, holding the only box I brought with me. The movers would be bringing the rest of my stuff for me. The stairs in the house were a dark red wood as I walked up them. The bright windows allowed the sun to pour in, lighting the house. There were many rooms that I could have chosen from, but as Jean and Sam suspected, I chose the room with the art studio connected to it. I gently slid off my shoes and walked to the door that connected the art room to the bedroom. Jiggling the handle, it wouldn't budge.

"It's locked." I said quietly to myself. Looking at the handle, it required some type of old fashioned key to open it. Sighing, I walked over to the window and placed the box there, opening it and scanning its contents. Inside was a sketchbook and some professional pencils. The paints were in the boxes in the movers' truck.

"You like the room?" Jean said to me, leaning on the doorframe. She had waist length brown hair that was held back in a loose ponytail. Her bangs fell loosely on her forehead. If she was going to work, all her hair would be held back in a tight bun. Her brown eyes held a certain mystery to them.

"I do, but the art room is locked." I informed her, gesturing to the door. She raised an eyebrow and glided over to the door and shook the handle a few times.

"I will just have to ask our agent about that." She mused before walking to the door. "Oh, Namine? There won't be much to do until the movers get here. Why don't you take a stroll around Middle Park or something until I call you?"

"I guess." I said, and I watched her retreat out of my new room. I gazed around the room one more time before I walked out, closing the door softly behind me. I held my small shoes with my fingers as I slid quietly down the stairs, being mindful not to make it creak. That was a pet peeve to my adoptive parents. I opened the door, allowing the wind to breeze past me. I had on a short red, frilly skirt with a lace white tank top and a thin tan cardigan held together with a thin brown belt. I slid on the small brown heels and lifted my small purse over my shoulder before I made my way down the street.

The park was filled with birds of all different kinds. The pond had different types of ducks and swans that I had never seen before. I crouched down in the grass and held out my hand to a duck that attempted to eat some grass out of my very pale palm. I smiled to myself before allowing myself to collapse fully onto the grass.

It was peaceful here.

"It's pretty isn't it?" A voice sounded from behind me. I turned my head and looked up to see a girl around my age smiling down at me. She had on a black mini dress with a thick gray hoodie that was falling off her shoulders. Her auburn hair came down to about shoulder length, and her bangs fell softly over her bright sky blue eyes.

"Ah—yes. It's gorgeous. I have never seen so many animals in one place like this in a city of all places." I returned my gaze out to the pond.

"It's rare to see them all gathered like this," She crouched down. "Usually they fly away once people start arriving." She held out a small hand to me. "I'm Kairi Trenton." She said with a smile on her face.

"Namine Manzano." I said. "I just moved here."

"Did you? It's the middle of the school year." She helped me stand up from my spot on the grass.

"I know, but my—my parents said that my marks were high enough for me to transfer so late, I guess." I shrugged. She nodded intently.

"So why are you sitting here all alone?"

Holding my hands behind my back, I turned back to the water. "I don't know anyone, so there isn't much I could do. I decided to take a walk, but I got side tracked."

"Well, how long can you be gone?" She asked me, tilting her head a bit.

"Until my parents call me, I believe."

"Come with me! You can make some friends before school even starts!" She giggled, pushing me in the direction of the street.

"Where are we going?" I asked Kairi as she pulled me down endless confusing roads.

"Memory Lanes. We are going bowling." She replied. I tried to keep track of how to get back, but there we so many twists and turns in the area that I couldn't remember anything. I couldn't differentiate what street was what. They all looked the same.

Finally we came to Memory Lanes. It was a small building off the boardwalk. Inside, there weren't many people besides the groups of teenagers in the corner that I assumed were Kairi's friends.

"Why are you so late, Kai? That's usually Sora's job!" A brunette girl laughed.

"I made a new friend!"

"Who?" A blond boy asked. He had his fingers interlocked with the brunettes'.

"Her name is Namine Manzano!" I blushed and waved slightly.

"Hello."

A brunette boy with wild hair came forward a bit. His eyes were just like Kairi's and he had a wild grin on his face. "I'm Sora!" He proclaimed loudly. "This is Hayner, Olette, and Riku." I followed his finger as he pointed to everyone.

"You up for a game?" Hayner said, handing me a lightweight pink ball.

"A quick one. I need to get back and unpack my stuff." I answered as I eyed the ball.

"I'll add in her name! Let's play!" Kairi said, skipping down to the computer. I placed my ball in the conveyer belt and sat down in a chair. Watching the others, I learned that everyone besides Sora was really good at bowling. Sora tended to get many gutter balls. I wasn't as bad as Sora, but I could barely hit any pins. I never had time to play bowling before I moved here.

"Another gutter, Sora? You are only at eight points!" Riku laughed, making fun off the poor boy.

"Shut the hell up! I'm doing fine." He pouted, sitting next to me. My phone started to vibrate in my purse and I took it out, answering it.

"Hello?" I said softly.

"Namine, the truck is finally here. Come back and help unpack." Sam said into the receiver. I nodded, though he couldn't see me.

"I'll be back soon enough." I pressed end and stood from my spot. "Um—I have to go."

"Already?" Kairi asked me, pouting.

"Yeah—I have to unpack." She sighed.

"We will see you at school!" Olette waved, along with everyone else. I had to allow everyone to place their numbers in my phone before I was allowed to leave. Kairi insisted on it. As I left the bowling alley, I walked down to the street corner to find the name of the street. I was on Union Drive West. Inputting that into my iPhone, I found a way back home. I had to walk fast if I wanted to make it back in decent time.

I had begun to unpack the last box in my room. To my delight, everything was still intact and everything would fit. I had a queen sized bed that had white and black sheets. Everything was silk. There was an armchair to the left of my bed and a bookshelf for my reading and then a desk to my right for homework. The lamps were near the far end of my room, near the balcony. It was shaded with thin white curtains.

I set the box of art supplies near the corner of the room. I wanted to set them up so badly, but until we found the key, there would be no opening it. I would only be able to sketch.

"Namine?" Jean came into my room as I was sitting on my bed, flipping through an old yearbook.

"Hm," I said, looking up at her.

"The agent said that there was no key turned in with the house for that room." I sighed. There go my chances of an art studio.

"That's fine. I can always paint outside." I smiled as she closed the door, but it slowly fell from my face. Walking over to the door, I pressed my face against it. I could barely see into the room. Slowly backing from the door, I turned to the balcony. It was getting dark, and I knew I had school to attend to in the morning, but I walked out and sat on the edge anyway.

I gazed up at the stars.

"I bet you both are up there and happy, aren't you?" I said to myself. "I hope you are, mom, dad." I said, tucking my blond hair behind my ear. Hopping down from the edge, I got into my bed and curled under the covers until I blacked out from sleepiness.

* * *

As I walked to the shuttle bus to get to school, I irritatingly pulled at the uniform. The black skirt was way too short for my liking. It had a basic white dress shirt underneath with a red bow as a tie. Then a basic black blazer to cover it up. There were black thigh highs and black shoes to go with it.

"This is so annoying." I muttered to myself as I stepped onto the shuttle bus. To get to the school I was attending, you had to take the shuttle bus over the Humboldt River to the other island. I stared out the window of the bus to look at the water moving below us. It was a mesmerizing sight. I had one hand placed against the window and the other holding my bag.

"Cool, huh?" I jumped up and looked directly into sea blue eyes. The boy's uniform was un-tucked and messy, as was his hair.

"Uh—yeah." I replied. He was unbelievably cute.

"You go to Huntington Prep too?" I nodded meekly.

"I just transferred."

"That explains it." I titled my head at the statement.

"Explains what?" He laughed.

"Well—if you were a usual student here, you would have gotten me confused with my brother, and then wouldn't have talked to me or something. But, never mind that. I'm Ventus. Ventus Hewes." He held out a hand.

"Ah—I'm Namine Manzano." He shook my hand. "What did you mean by 'confusing you with your brother'?" I had to ask. I wanted to make sure I actually knew some information on people before I made friends with someone.

"Oh, I have a twin brother, Roxas. Most people confuse me with him." He didn't mention anything about the not talking to him part so I decided to leave it alone. He didn't mention it for a reason.

We finally got over the river and the shuttle port was about a block from Huntington Prep. This island was far different that mine. It was more suburban and homey.

"Namine!" I heard Kairi shout in my direction. She skipped down some steps and came to meet me. "Oh, you know Ventus?" I completely forgot he was there for a moment.

"I just met him on the shuttle a little while ago." I clarified.

"Hey, Kairi." He said. "I'll see you later, Namine." He jogged off in the direction of the front doors, but not before high fiving Sora on the way in.

"So, Namine, what is your first class?" She asked me as we walked into the building.

"Uh—Lit." I said after checking my schedule. "With Mr. Nakamura."

"Sweet! You have it with me." She took my arm and led me to the classroom. She shoved me near the teacher and introduced me to him and I received a copy of the book that the class is currently reading; Romeo and Juliet. It was such a classic tale of forbidden love.

Taking a seat when the bell rang, I unhooked my bag clasp and pulled out a pencil and a notebook when I heard the teacher being to talk.

"Is there anything good to eat?" I asked as I pulled out my wallet to get something to eat at the lunch cafeteria. The lunch room itself was big. The tables were round and seated at least eight to a table. There were big windows that let in light so you could see the garden that held students who chose to eat outside with the cherry blossoms.

"Not really. I was just going to walk down to my family's restaurant. Want to come?" She asked me, heading towards the back door of the cafeteria.

"Are we allowed to leave?" But I followed regardless.

"Sure. We have an hour, right? I go all the time since there isn't any good food here. Sora usually comes with but he is stuck doing a test right now." She said as we exited the building. We were going to leave from the back so we had to round the side of the school to get to the parking lot. "You might want to hold your breath."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why would I want to do that?" She pointed her head in the direction we were heading. There were some kids, all of them going to my school, hanging on the side wall. There was a small stereo playing some music by a band I never heard. Their uniforms were unkempt and dirty. Some had smirks on their faces and laughing with each other. The others were content not talking to anyone.

"They are smoking some drugs. Pot, I think. It smells horrible." Kairi said, tucking a hair behind her ear as she held her breath. She briskly walked by the group of kids with any trouble. But me, on the other hand, I was a bit hesitant. I accidently smelled some of the smoke and it smelled horrible. I tried not to make any eye contact with any of them as my hand went to my nose and I tried to keep my eyes focused on the ugly black shoes that adorned my feet. My blond bangs fell into my eyes as I walked at a quick pace to get out of there. I happened to lift my head, thinking I was almost out of there, and I looked to my left. Sitting there on a black skateboard, leaning against a wall, was a boy. At first glance, I thought it was Ventus, but taking a closer look, this boy had a hard look in his eyes. His eyes were as beautiful as Ventus's though. My eyes locked with his for a second as I walked out of there and I felt a gasp escape from my mouth. I don't know why I gasped, but as soon as I did, I started coughing.

I swear I saw a smirk on his face when I coughed.

"I told you not to breathe, didn't I?" Kairi said, concerned as soon as I reached her.

"I know." I said, letting out the last of my cough. She took out some perfume and sprayed it all over us before we continued to her family's restaurant. "That boy…"

"What?" Kairi turned to look at me. "Who?"

"He looked like Ventus. Was that his brother?" Kairi made a noise of understanding when I asked the question.

"Yeah—that's Roxas alright. Not someone you should hang out with, if you couldn't tell." I nodded, lifting a finger to my mouth.

"I see. Why does he do all that stuff?"

"I'm not too sure. He used to be close with me, you know. A year ago, he changed crowds. I don't know what caused it, but I chose to stay away. He tends to go to Northwood Heights with all those other guys."

"He is nothing like his brother. Ventus was really kind. His eyes were full of laughter. Roxas's, from what I saw, his eyes were hard." I mumbled to myself.

I didn't understand the fear that coursed through me back there.

The Pine Star, Kairi's family restaurant, was a small fancy place. The décor was dark and red. It was a very beautiful place indeed. It sold a variety of food, but its main dishes were usually Chinese.

"Mama! Papa!" Kairi called, ringing the desk bell a lot. From the back of the restaurant came a man and a woman. The man was tall and lanky and had close chopped brown hair. He and Kairi shared the same blue eyes. The woman was around Kairi's height and held long, thick, brown hair and hazel eyes. Her smile held laugh lines around it.

"Here for lunch? Who is your friend?" Her mother asked. Kairi extended her hand towards me.

"This is Namine! She just moved here yesterday." I bowed slightly in respect.

"Nice to meet you." They both came forward and introduced themselves. I learned that they were Rika and Kenji Trenton. I thought it was ironic since they owned a Chinese restaurant that they had Japanese first names and an American sounding last name. Kairi and I talked over many subjects and she told me about many of her friends over lunch. I learned that Sora was a klutz and an airhead but she still thought he was cute. Hayner loved competition and would never back down from a fight. Olette was a tomboy and loved to run around with Hayner, but in the end made sure everyone did their homework. Riku was very quiet and stoic but could laugh and converse whenever Sora started a fight with him.

"You have interesting friends." I said as we made our way back to the school.

"I know. We had more—for example Ventus used to hang out with us a lot but he distanced himself. He still says hi and stuff." Kairi said, gazing off in front of us. As we stepped on school grounds, we had to take the back way again, but this time the group of kids were not there. The smell still lingered.

* * *

"How does that sound?" Sora said to Kairi and me as we sat on the desks in our classroom. Orange was pouring into the windows as it was nearing dinner time. The three of us were on cleaning duty tonight and we had just finished.

"I don't see why not. But when have you of all people arranged a study session?" Kairi laughed, taking our brooms and putting them away.

"I'm failing! I need to study otherwise I won't pass the end of this semester." Sora groaned, pulling on the ends of his shirt. I laughed quietly.

"What about your cousin, Ven? He's smart."

"Ventus says that he drives me home enough that he doesn't owe me a study session." Sora pouted.

"That's dumb." I accidently said aloud.

"I know!" It got quiet after that as we gathered our things. "You know what's weird?" Sora said after he finished gathering his things.

"What?" Kairi responded, throwing her blazer on.

"Roxas is actually getting a ride home with me and Ven today. It's odd since he usually goes home with all those other kids." Sora replied, rubbing his head.

"Odd." Kairi said, holding her chin. I jumped off my desk, tapping my shoes to get the dust off of them before I grabbed my bag.

"I have to run home before I miss dinner." I said with a smile as I held my bag behind my back. Sora and Kairi waved and I slid the door open before I ran down the hall of the school. I knew if I was late, Jean wouldn't be too happy with me. As I ran, I listened to the echo that my shoes made on the hard floor.

I rounded my last corner before I pushed the doors open I finally put my hands on my knees and took in some deep breaths.

"Running from someone?" A deep voice said and I jumped a bit before turning around. Ventus was standing there with a smirk on his face. "Did I scare you?"

"Just a bit." To his right stood Roxas, scanning through his phone quietly. One hand was shoved in his pocket as he chewed on his bottom lip.

"I don't think you met my brother. This is Roxas." I mumbled a hello as he looked up to meet my eyes.

"You're the girl from earlier." He said, closing his phone and getting a better look at me.

"You've seen her before?" Ventus asked, looking at his brother. He nodded.

"She was with Kairi." Roxas's voice was very empty. "Can we go? I'm tired."

"Maybe if you didn't smoke so much…" Ventus said to himself aloud. "Sorry for holding you up, Namine. You seemed to be in a rush." He rubbed the back of his head.

"It isn't a big deal. I'm in no rush to go home, I'm just hungry." I laughed slightly. "Well—I better go. Ah, nice meeting you Roxas." I said awkwardly. He didn't look up.

"Bye Namine." Ventus said to me as I turned around and broke into a sprint to the shuttle.

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	2. Chapter 2

I walked along the pavement to school that early Friday morning. I wanted to get a head start to school that day so I could ask some of my new teachers about the curriculum. The week had flown by pretty well. Kairi had partnered up with me in every class we had together and we would go to the Pine Star all the time for lunch. When we had free time, I would draw her a pretty picture or something she would like in return. We became quick best friends, and I found that we would tell each other almost anything. The only thing that I hadn't told her is that I was adopted. That was just something I didn't really want to share with anyone right now.

"You mean you can't open it?" Kairi asked me when I ran into her in the hallway at school.

"No. There isn't any key that goes with it. It depresses me because I really wanted to be able to paint without getting yelled at by my parents. They think I will make a mess if I do it in the house." I told her. Kairi nodded in thought as she held a bobby pin in her mouth to pull up her bangs.

"It's like a mystery!" She proclaimed once she was done.

"Well obviously."

Kairi started to walk towards our first class together and she went along to tell me her ingenious plan on how to find the key.

"We can do research and such! They said the key wasn't turned in with the house, right? We can find the original owners and voila!" Kairi laughed.

"It's not that big of a deal. We don't have to worry about it right now." I said, and Kairi huffed but agreed as we sat down at our desks.

"Good morning!" I looked up to see a very happy Ventus standing in front of my desk. Raising an eyebrow, I replied to him.

"Morning. What is with the happy attitude?" I asked him.

"Ven is a morning person in general." Kairi grumbled. He put his hands on my desk before he spoke again.

"I wanted to ask you something." Being a very shy and quiet girl, there was only a few scenarios running through my brain at the moment. He was going to ask me for either something along the lines of homework, or ask me to go somewhere. Usually, for someone like me, it was the former.

"Okay, what?"

"You don't know much about the city, right? How about I show you around the islands tonight?" He proposed.

"Oh I don't—"I started to say, but Kairi shot up and cut me off.

"She would love to!" She answered for me.

"Great! I'll meet you after school then." He smiled before walking off to talk to his other friends across the room.

"Kairi! I am busy!" I whisper shouted at her. I was pretty irritated that she would answer a question like that for me.

"Doing?" I got quiet and didn't reply. "Exactly. Get out and meet some boys. Ven is a particularly fine one if I do say so myself."

I sighed before leaning my head in my hand and listening to the teacher talk as I doodled. I already learned most of this stuff at my old school so I found no reason to pay attention. On the paper, I was drawing the view from the shuttle bus that I see every morning. It was something I had in my head since I moved here; I just never had any time to draw it.

Towards the middle of the teachers' lecture, the classroom door opened and in strolled Roxas. He was acting like coming in halfway late into class was no big deal and had his hand in his pocket.

"Nice of you to join us, Mr. Hewes." Mr. Nakamura said. "What is your excuse this time?" Roxas looked over to the teacher with the most bored expression I had ever seen and answered him.

"Car repairs."

Some people in the room giggled because you could hear the sarcasm in his voice. He was toying with the teacher and he was enjoying every minute of it. The two went back and forth with smart remarks and frankly it was getting annoying. I could tell no one wanted to speak up and take part in class again because they didn't want to suffer Roxas's wrath on them. It was fairly reasonable to be afraid of him. He gave off a bad vibe.

"Hey. Can we, you know, continue with the lesson instead of listening to you argue with Mr. Nakamura, Roxas?" I finally said, getting fed up with the constant bickering. Roxas turned around with an irritated expression on his face. I could feel the tension in the room after I said that and some people looked fairly shocked that I spoke up. "Please?"

Roxas looked at me for a little longer. "Whatever." That shocked me. I thought he was going to say some smart ass remark to me and continue with what he was doing, but he just complied and sat down in his desk a few rows away from me.

Now that was shocking.

* * *

"I hear that you told off Roxas." Sora said to me as we walked from Kairi's parents' restaurant. I rolled my eyes at him and groaned. Why were people making it sound worse than it was?

"I didn't tell him off. All I said was that I wanted him to sit down because I wanted to continue the lesson." I replied to him. Sora nodded, but for some reason it looked like he didn't believe me. Kairi was walking next to Sora, seemingly in deep thought.

"What's wrong, Kai?" Sora asked the auburn haired girl. I was wondering the same thing since she had been quiet most of the walk back to school.

"I was just thinking about that key, Namine."

"Again?" I sighed. I don't know why it interested her so much. It was my room.

"Yeah. Mind if I stop by tomorrow and look at the door or something?" She offered as we slipped through the back side of the school. I particularly hated doing that since my shirt would always get caught on one of the vines coming down from the side of the school.

"Me too!" Sora shouted, beaming at me.

"Fine, whatever. I don't know what you are going to accomplish." We walked into the lunch room just in time for the bell to ring. Students were getting up and throwing away their trash by the time we got through the double glass doors. "I'll see you guys later." I waved the two off and began to make my way to the arts department of the school. It was one of the only classes that I looked forward to.

As I rounded the corner, my face collided with something hard, and I groaned, rubbing my nose out of pain. "Sorry." I said to the person that I unfortunately ran into. I couldn't help but think how embarrassing that must have been.

"It's you." The person just said that with no expression in his voice. Looking up, I was staring right into those hard blue eyes again.

"Roxas?"

"I am pretty sure that's my name." I glared at his rude attitude.

"Well—sorry for running into you, but I have to get to class." The air smelled of smoke and I wasn't really enjoying it.

"You think you are all big and tough, don't you?" He said to my retreating form. Turning around, I placed my hands on my hips.

"Excuse me?" I asked him.

"Most people don't have the guts to tell me off, let alone talk to me. I'm not too pleased with your attitude." He told me, taking a few steps closer to me.

"You don't like _my _attitude? Look at yours buddy." I shot back at him. "I don't know what your problem is and why you treat people like that, but you need to fix it."

"I don't have a problem." He said back to me, pulling something out of his pocket.

"That's your problem!" I pointed to the substance in his hands. He held it up and eyed it, raising an eyebrow. "That is so bad for you, and it is making you act like a jerk." I huffed.

"I don't see anything wrong with it. Why are you trying to pry yourself into my problems?" He wasn't making any sense to me. He started talking to me and being rude. I would have stayed on my side of the tracks if he hadn't pulled me over. He was making me act in a way I usually don't act. I'm a quiet, reserved artist and I like it that way. Roxas was making me the polar opposite.

"You make no sense, Roxas. I have to go or I'll be late." I sighed and walked away, gripping the handle of my school bag.

* * *

I sat quietly on the steps of the front of the school, waiting for Ventus. He was going to be showing me the hot spots of the city and told me to meet him here. I made sure that I called Jean and told her that I would have a ride home tonight since I almost guaranteed that I wouldn't be home until dark.

"Sorry I am a little late." Ventus said, running up with a hand behind his head. I stood, brushing off my skirt, smiling.

"It's no big deal. I haven't been here long." He smiled back at me and laughed. "Ready?"

"You bet." He walked me over to his car, which was actually pretty nice. The car itself was a slick black color, with a spotless shine. The inside had gray leather seats and it was very clean inside. "I hope you don't mind, but the place I want to take us is a bit of a drive, so we can sight see until we get there."

"That's fine." I replied as I looked out the window. On this island, all I could really see were houses and families. There were many children running around, playing on the side of the street with balls or riding bikes. There was a large lake here as well, but it wasn't as pretty as Middle Park. We crossed over the bridge to get to the middle island. I was getting pretty familiar with it. There were many fancy restaurants and stores. It was the place with the most high rises and shops. We drove by Middle Park and I smiled to myself.

"You live on this island, right?" Ventus asked me as we were driving by.

"Yeah, not too far from here."

"It's a nice island. Much better than mine." He commented as we pulled onto the expressway to take us to the left most island.

"Which one do you live on?" He got quiet for a moment, and then replied.

"Northwood Heights."

"You mean that really run down one?" I noticed how rude that must of sounded after I said it. "I'm sorry." I murmured.

"No, it's fine. It's true. It isn't a really good place, but I normally don't hang around home anyway!" He smiled big and turned his attention back onto the road.

We turned off the expressway and started turning on many back roads. The left most island was all industrial, but it had some nice restaurants. We pulled in front of a pizza shop which was fairly packed.

"Sorry if it isn't someplace nice or anything. When you move out here, you have to taste this pizza. It is the best!" Ventus laughed, turning off the car and helping me out the passenger side.

"I've never had pizza before." I said, clasping my hands behind my back.

"What? Really?" He asked me as he opened the door for me.

"Yeah." Ventus laughed heartedly at me before we walked up to the counter to order. I didn't really pay attention to what he was ordering. It was something along the lines of a medium cheese pizza. We sat down at a table in the far corner of the room. It was hard to even find a spare chair since so many people were packed into that place.

"Is it good?" I questioned, taking a piece of the pizza off the plate.

"It's amazing! You have to try it, Namine." Ventus told me. I eyed the food uneasily before placing it into my mouth. Chewing slowly, I tried to get the full flavor of the food. My eyes lit up in delight when I fully tasted the pizza.

"It's wonderful!" I exclaimed, eating a little bit more. Ventus just smiled.

We finished up eating at the pizza shop before he took me around and told me what each island was. The left most one had the factories and such. The middle was the home of entertainment, the right most one was the home for suburban families and schools. The upper island, Northwood Heights, was the center of 'dirty' entertainment and crime.

"What street do you live on again?" Ventus asked me as we turned off the expressway. I was starting to get cold because the sun was going down and I was still in my school uniform.

"Ah—Ruby." I said. The plan was that I would go home and change and come back out and go to his place so he could change. We were going out to see a movie after much begging and asking from him. My curfew wasn't until a few hours anyway. He turned down the street and I hopped out of the car, walking up to the front of my house and knocking on the door. I haven't been given any keys yet.

"I didn't expect you home this early." Jean said to me as she let us in the house. "Who is this?"

"This is Ventus Hewes. He was the one showing me around today. We were going to go out to a movie, if that is okay." I mentioned. It would be good just to leave out the part that involved me going to his house right after this.

"I guess that's fine. Nice to meet you Ventus. I'm Jean." He shook her hand and smiled.

"Nice you meet you too. I'll wait down here, Namine." He told me and I nodded, running up the stairs to my room. After I got to my room and closed the door, I stripped myself from my uniform. I pulled on a pair of black pantyhose and put on red dress with white floral print covering most of it. Then I pulled out a very large red, cotton sweater. I slipped my feet in black heels and pulled back my blond hair with a clip, letting my bangs and loose strands fall out.

I walked back down the stairs, pulling my small, black purse off the railing and grabbed Ventus's arm.

"Let's go!" I smiled, pulling him out of the house before he had any time to speak to Jean. I don't even want to know what they were talking about.

"You look nice." He commented as we drove to the upper island. I blushed fiercely.

"Thanks." I said in reply. The drive to his house wasn't that far. We just took the upper expressway and were there in a matter of 20 minutes. I looked out the window and Northwood Heights was indeed the place that they made it out to be. It was late at night and people were walking the streets. Some were in groups. There were prostitutes walking up and down to streets, calling to cars and getting in with some old man that was excited to score that night and get laid. Ventus's house was a little of a ways from that entire disturbing scene. It was a little apartment on the top of the hill that you had to drive up. It was a tiny little apartment, but it seemed homey in a way. I could now tell why he lived out here. It wasn't a choice. They just didn't have tons of money like I did.

"Sorry it isn't very presentable." He rubbed the back of his head as I followed him to his front door.

"It's quaint. I like it." I put on my best smile for him. He pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the front door. We had to walk up a flight of stairs before we got to his apartment door, which he had to pull out more keys to open that one.

"I'm home!" He called into the room.

"In here, dear!" A feminine voice called. Out came a woman with long brown hair that was tied in a long braid. She had a smile on her face and was wearing a kitchen apron. Her eyes held happiness as she walked towards us. "Who is this?"

"This is my friend Namine. We are going to go out to a movie." He mentioned. "I just have to get changed." He walked over to the side of the apartment and into a room before closing the door.

"So Namine, what island do you live on?" His mother asked me.

"The middle most one." I replied, taking a seat on the couch while she sat on the chair, wiping her hands on her apron. She nodded and was about to reply when the front door opened. In strolled in Roxas.

"You're actually home?" Mrs. Hewes said to Roxas, with some excitement and sadness. Roxas looked over at me. He was wearing light pale blue jeans, a black shirt with a navy blue plaid button up; but the buttons weren't closed. He was also wearing a black belt, and he had some colored bands on his left hand.

"Why are you here?" He asked me, annoyance in his voice. I kept my hands folded in my lap as I answered.

"I'm waiting for Ventus. We are going to a movie." I replied in my soft soprano voice.

"You guys are going to a movie?" There was some shock in his voice. I nodded. He walked over to an open window and pulled out a cigarette. Not pot, or any drug like that, but a regular cigarette.

"Roxas, you know I don't like you smoking, let alone in the house." She said with distaste in her voice. I scrunched up my nose at him, and he just rolled his eyes and turned and looked out the window. Ventus walked out of his room and I looked at his attire. He was wearing regular blue jeans, a gray shirt, and a leather jacket.

"You ready?" He asked me. "Hey Roxas." Roxas put up his hand, signaling that he acknowledged him.

"I'm ready. Goodbye, Mrs. Hewes." I said, bowing slightly.

"Call me Aerith!" She smiled as we walked out of the house.

* * *

It took a while to actually get to the theatre since we had to go back to the middle island. It was near Middle Park and it took a bit to find a parking spot. The lights on the street were on and lighting up the gardens that lined the sidewalks.

"What are we seeing?" I asked shyly. I looked up at him and he had a hand on his chin in deep thought.

"Do you mind a scary movie?" I shuddered, but nodded my head.

"That's fine. I'd love to see a scary movie." I smiled at him. We walked up to the ticket booth and Ventus kindly paid for my ticket. We were going to see George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead. It was some sort of zombie movie. We ordered a medium popcorn and two medium drinks before we walked and sat in the theatre. I was getting ready to pull my legs to my chest and curl into a ball. I was a bit scared.

"You okay?" He asked me. I turned and smiled at him.

"Perfect!"

The room got dark and the movie began. There were obnoxious teenagers sitting all around us laughing and on their cell phones. One thing that bothered me with these movies is that it was always dark in horror movies. Ventus was laughing during the movie because it was apparently very funny. I didn't think so.

"Did you see that?" Ventus pointed at the screen laughing.

"No, not really." I said, peeking through my hands.

After an hour of zombies trying to be actual people, Ventus and I climbed back in the car and he went to drive me back to his house. We talked for a while in the car, making small talk. He had me laughing a lot. We drove around Middle Park and the giant sphere of the planet in the middle of the pond was lit up, shining and spraying designs of water. It was gorgeous.

We got to my house and Ventus got out to walk me to the door. I held my purse in my hands in front of me. He had one of his hands in his pocket as we stood in front of my door. The porch light was on and I was fidgeting with my feet.

"I had fun." He said with a smile on his face.

"Me too." I said, pulling him into a friendly hug. "Ah—see you Monday." He nodded before I waved him goodbye as I walked into the house and up the stairs to my room.

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up the next morning thinking about last night. It occurred to me how much I enjoyed talking and hanging out with Ventus. It also occurred to me what type of home environment he came from. It was sad to see where he was forced to live. That environment may be why Roxas is the way he is. It would explain a lot. I rubbed my eyes before standing out of bed and stretching. I made sure that I took an extra long time in the shower, scrubbing my hair and my skin I was clean of the all the events of yesterday. I forgot to shower before bed the night before. Kairi and Sora were supposed to come over today around noon and told me after Kairi had her fun, we would be going out. It was reasonably warm today, so I pulled out a strapless white dress. It had different layers falling down, but it was plain white. On top of that, I wore a short sleeved jean jacket and a pair of black wedge heels. Leaving my hair down, I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen where I saw Sam and Jean eating at the table.

"You have friends coming over today?" Sam asked me as I took a seat in front of my breakfast.

"Um—yeah." I replied, taking a bite of my bagel. Jean looked up from the newspaper and spoke to me.

"Keep the house clean. Sam and I have a meeting to go to around eleven and we won't be home until dinner time."

I nodded, placing my fork into my pancakes. "I'm going out a little after they get here with them, just so you know."

"You will not." Sam told me, looking me stern in the face.

"Why not?"

"Because, when we are gone, who will look after the house?" I remained silent, knowing it wasn't a battle I could win. I would just get yelled at.

After breakfast, Jean and Sam reminded me that I was to not leave the house and that I take good care of it. They left emergency numbers on the counter and left. I stood, drawing in my sketchbook until Sora and Kairi arrived. I was sketching a picture of a flower garden that I had seen outside the school. There were butterflies and other insects all around it. But—the picture to me seemed empty, like someone belonged there. In fact, whenever I actually passed by the garden, it seemed like someone should be there.

The doorbell rang, shaking me out of my thoughts and I stood and walked to the door. Upon opening it, I saw a grinning Sora, followed by an irritated Kairi.

"Sorry we are a few minutes late." She smiled. Kairi was wearing a plain gray shirt with a pair of short ripped shorts. Underneath the shorts were a pair of black tights that met at her feet, which had on a pair of black converse. On her wrist was one black leather wristband. Her hair was down, her bangs falling into her right eye and she had on a pair of dark sunglasses. In front of her was Sora, who had on just a pair of blue jeans and a gray shirt. Of course he had on shoes.

"Its fine, I was sketching anyway." I said, allowing them to come in. Kairi walked inside, slipping off her shoes.

"Wow—nice place." She smiled at me, elbowing Sora in the side.

"It is very nice." He rubbed the back of his head. Kairi darted up the stairs in search of my room, and I was glad Jean and Sam weren't here. They would get irritated with all the noise. "Sorry about Kairi. She's eager." Sora told me as he and I walked up the stairs.

"It's fine. I have nothing to hide." I laughed as we finally found her crouched in front of the art studio door in my room.

"This is an odd lock." She commented as I walked over to her, leaning down next to her.

"Why?"

"Kairi stop bragging that you know tons about locks." Sora said, taking a seat on the couch near my bed. He leaned a head in his hand, obviously bored.

"Shut up." She said to him before turning to me. "They don't even make key holes like this in the century anymore! This is odd because this is a new house." Kairi mused, running a hand over the lock.

"No way. Then it must have been an idea that the designer had." I replied, suddenly getting interested. Kairi shook her head.

"No, because it looks like the lock shouldn't even be here. It is like the last owners or someone tried to put it in themselves. The parts inside the lock that release when you put the key are so complex with these locks it wouldn't be able to open without the key." Shocked by Kairi's explanation, I pouted.

"Then I am never going to get to use my art studio!" I crossed my arms.

"I have an idea." Sora said from behind us. "Let's just go to a locksmith." He moved Kairi out of the way and took a picture of the lock before helping both of us up off the floor.

"One issue. I can't leave the house." I sadly said, taking a seat on the side of my bed. Kairi walked up to me, hands on her hips.

"And why not!"

"My parents said I couldn't."

"And are they here?"

"No."

"Exactly!" Kairi exclaimed. I looked at her with a confused expression while Sora laughed in the corner. He was holding his stomach, doubling over in laughter.

"What?" I questioned confused.

"Namine, Kairi is suggesting that you leave the house without your parents' permission. You aren't the type of girl to do that are you?" I sat there in a daze for a minute, going over what they said. I was strictly told not to leave the house, and yes I don't break the rules.

"I was told to stay here."

"Live a little!"

"But—Kairi!"

"Then I guess you won't ever get your art studio." That shut me up. I looked at her wide eyed before answering.

I'd do anything for art.

"Let's go."

* * *

The sun was bearing down outside, and I wished that I hadn't worn the jacket. The weather said that it was in the low eighties, so I figured it would be a bit breezy, but no. It felt like the surface of the sun outside, but I didn't want to take off the jacket.

"It's hot." Sora said, waving a hand to cool himself.

"I know." Kairi groaned. She had pulled up her hair to cool off her neck and was stomping because she was angry. "This heat is pissing me off."

"Why don't you turn it off?" Sora said.

"Oh yes Sora, because I can do that." Sora leaned over to me with a grin on his face and whispered to me.

"She's angry when she's hot." I laughed at his joke.

We had been walking for a while and my feet were killing me. If I had known that we were walking across the city, I would have changed my shoes. I rubbed my head out of frustration as we walked block after block. We had long passed Middle Park and we were walking in the direction of the left most island. As we walked down this last block, it was a dead end and we were face to face with a wall. It was about six feet high, covered from top to bottom in vines. I looked around for a way to avoid it, but the only one I saw was either going through a high rise building, or going through a dirty lake.

"Well let's get to climbing!" Kairi said, raising a hand in the air. I scrunched up my nose while looking at her.

"What? Can't we just pass through the building? Or better yet, walk around the block?" I asked. I didn't want to climb over the wall. I wasn't the most graceful.

"Yeah, and suffer all this heat by taking the long way? And I doubt the owners of the building will let us go through the back of the building." Kairi told me, taking a hold of one of the vines.

"I'll hold your jacket." Sora told me as he noticed I was taking it off. I smiled at him and handed it to him.

"Thank you." I replied as I climbed over the wall. I was a bit irritated that I had to climb over the wall in the blazing heat in a dress. I reached the top before Kairi and I turned around so I could climb down because I wasn't planning on jumping. As I started to climb down, glaring at the brick wall that held the vines, the one I was gripping, snapped and I fell backwards.

"Namine!" I heard Kairi shout, and I saw her face at the top of the wall as I fell backwards. I let out a scream, expecting to smash my head on the ground. I didn't see if the ground was grass or concrete, but I was hoping it was the former.

Instead of hitting the ground like I was expecting, I fell into something. And that something was a person's arms. Looking at the arms, they were bare besides the fact at one of the arms had many black rubber bracelets on them.

"Nice of you to drop in." I recognized the voice. Looking up, I was staring into a pair of blue eyes and messy hair. Over his shoulder was a pale blue plaid shirt. He had on a white wife beater instead.

"Roxas!" My soprano voice sounded surprised.

"I'm pretty sure that's me." He said with a smirk on his face. Looking up, I noticed Sora and Kairi finally getting down onto my side of the wall.

"Namine! You are okay, thank goodness." Kairi said, holding a hand to her heart. "I'm sorry. It was my idea to climb the wall."

"It's fine." I told her with a smile, and then I looked at Roxas. "Can you um—put me down?" I asked, pointing to the floor beneath us. He shrugged and dropped me, allowing me to hit the grass. "Ow!"

"Sorry!" He laughed, holding a cigarette between his fingers. I stood, wiping off my white dress of any grass that may have been on it. Sora handed me my jacket which I was happy to put back on.

"You are a jerk!" I glared at him.

"I practically saved your life and you are calling me a jerk?" He said with a laugh.

"You could have set me down nicely." I huffed.

"Nah." He replied, taking a long drag from his cigarette. He blew out the smoke and laughed again as I coughed.

"Let's go you guys." I said, pulling on Kairi's arm. Sora made a sympathetic face at Roxas before he made way to follow the direction I was pulling Kairi.

"Chasing new friends away already?" A voice said near the corner I was about to turn on. It was a boy. A tall one at that. He had flaming red hair and piercing green eyes that sent chills down my spine. His body was tall and lanky and he had a lighter in his right hand. He let out a loud laugh before looking at me.

"We aren't friends, and I don't intend on being his friend." I said, getting highly irritated. I wasn't irritated at the fact that he dropped me anymore. No, I was irritated because whenever I ran into Roxas, I changed into a different person. I had a different personality than I was used to and it made me mad.

"Well—that's harsh. Just get to know him!" This boy laughed again. "As if."

Kairi wrapped her arm around mine and sneered at him. "Just stop teasing her, Axel, and leave her alone. You guys are just a bunch of drug addicts with attitudes."

"How little you understand, Kairi." Roxas said in a low voice. "Let them go, Axel."

That boy that I learned was Axel sighed heavily before raising his arms in defeat and walking near Roxas. Sora rubbed the back of his head before taking the lead and he began to walk down the street. Kairi groaned and stomped after him, obviously irritated that we ran into these two. I stood there for a moment, taking one last look at Roxas who suddenly seemed sad. I met his eyes and I stared for a few seconds before sharply turning my head and walking down the street.

There was something I didn't understand.

* * *

The locksmith was on the corner of Smith and Green. The building was a small one floor business that was stuck in the middle of high rise buildings and entertainment. It had old windows and doors that obviously needed to be cleaned and a garden that needed to be trimmed. The locksmith sign was old and being eaten away by the forces of nature.

"This place seems really run down." I commented as I had to step over large weeds to get up to the front door.

"It may be run down," Kairi said, turning to me, "but he is one of the best locksmiths that I know of." She got up to the door and knocked fiercely on the front door. There was no doorbell. Eventually the door cracked open to reveal a man of weak stature. He was old, but not any older than 70. He had a receding hairline and trifocals.

"Yes?" He croaked out after fully studying us.

"Um—Sir, we wanted to know if you could make a set of keys for a specific type of lock." Kairi told him. He looked at us for a few moments before finally stepping aside and allowing all of us to come inside.

The inside was much nicer, much like a grandparent's house. There were different types of machines though, and many different types of keys. There rest of the house was filled with antiques of that nature. He led us to a dark mahogany table and told us to take a seat.

"I have a picture of the lock." Sora said, pulling out his phone and handing it to the man. He cleared his throat before taking his phone and adjusting his glasses to look at the picture. I had crossed my fingers under the table as he looked at it. He was silent for a moment; a moment which I thought was way too long.

"I don't really know if I can make a key for this." He eventually said and my heart dropped.

"Why not!" I asked a little too loud.

"This lock—believe it or not, I don't have a machine to make a key like this anymore." He said sadly, handing Sora back his phone. He folded his hands on his table, locking his fingers together.

"But—you're a locksmith. You should be able to make one." Kairi replied to his statement, getting irritated.

"Not with my machines or knowledge, no. I cannot. I'm sorry I can't be much help." He told us. "Perhaps you can find the original owner of the key?"

"That's a lost cause." Kairi replied. "Thanks for seeing us at least. Come on guys, let's go." She stood from the table and turned to walk out the front door, Sora following close behind. I stood, bowed slightly and turned to walk out, but his voice stopped me.

"Don't give up on finding that key." I didn't turn around, but nodded and left the house to meet up with Kairi and Sora on the street.

"Sorry this didn't work out." Kairi said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I just shook my head and smiled.

"It's no big deal." I said with a wave of my hand.

"Want to get something to eat with Kairi and me? We are going to get something down the street." Sora asked me, rummaging in his pockets for some money.

"No, I'll just go home and see you guys Monday." The two said goodbye and I sighed, walking back the way that I came. I knew no other way than climbing over that wall, and I was just as afraid to climb over it as I was before. I got to the block that the wall was on and looked up at the sky. It was getting cloudy, which meant it was going to rain soon.

I reached the wall and saw that Axel and Roxas had left. Rain drops slowly but surely started to hit my forehead as I climbed the brick wall. The rain then began to pelt down on me as I sat on the top of the brick wall and I didn't want to turn around and slip. This time the floor was concrete.

"Great." I said with a bit of a sob in my voice. I was too afraid to jump down so I sat there with my hands in my lap as I became drenched in rain. I felt stupid for not staying with Sora and Kairi. It was raining so hard that I could barely see in front of me.

"Why are you just sitting there?" A voice said from below me. I gasped and looked down to find the one person I didn't want to see.

"Go away, Roxas." I complained. He chuckled.

"You seem to have trouble getting down."

"I can get down just fine." I huffed, crossing my arms. He held up his hands in defense and turned around.

"Well fine. Don't say I didn't offer." He told me, walking away. I bit my bottom lip before I yelled out again.

"Wait!" I heard him laugh before he came back and stood near the base of the wall again. "I guess I could use a little help."

He held out his arms. "Jump down. I'll catch you."

"You will drop me!" I complained, glaring at him.

"I promise I won't drop you this time." He said with a laugh. "Trust me."

"Why should I!"

"Do you want to get down?" He said and that shut me up. I wrung out my hands before taking a deep breath and pushing myself off the top of the wall. I forced myself not to scream as I fell, hoping that he caught me. Fortunately, a pair of wet, strong arms caught me in their grasp. "See? I told you I would catch you."

"Yeah." I said, a little breathless. "You don't smell like smoke." I accidentally said aloud as he held me.

"I haven't been smoking." I nodded a bit, noticing his change in behavior.

"Can you put me down?" I asked once again, pointing to the ground. This time he didn't purposely drop me or anything, but set me down nicely and made sure I was balanced before he stepped away from me. Once I took a good look at him, he was as soaked as I was and his hair managed to stay spiky in the rain. When he wasn't smoking, his personality seemed close to Ventus's.

"No thank you?" He asked, bending forward a little.

"Oh! Thank you." I said softly. Rain was pouring into my eyes and I had to keep blinking so I could see. We stood there in an awkward silence before I yelled. "I'm in so much trouble!"

"Why?"

"Well for one, it's raining so hard I can't figure out how to get home. And two—at this rate, I won't get home in time for my parent's to figure out that I never left." I groaned. I was going to be in so much trouble.

"Where do you live?"

"Near Middle Park, on Ruby."

"I know where that is. If you can restrain yourself from killing me, I can take you there." I raised an eyebrow and he pointed to a bike that was sitting on the side of the road.

"Oh no. A motorcycle in the rain? We will be killed! I don't even know how good of a driver you are." I said backing away.

"Come on. I promise I will follow the speed limit. You want to get home, right?" He said to me, running a hand through his hair. I bit my lip before finally walking with him to the bike. I couldn't tell for sure what the color was because of the rain, but it was a small bike that was close to the color of a midnight blue. Roxas handed me a blue helmet and told me to put it on.

"What will you wear?" I asked him, securing the helmet to my head.

"I'm fine. I don't need it. Just get on." Roxas got onto the bike first and I followed, wrapping my arms around his waist. He started the bike and we took off, going a little faster than necessary. Rain was pelting against my arms and the helmet harder than it should and I cringed, the rain irritating my arms. The noise of the bike hitting the water made me nervous, as I thought we would crash. Thankfully, we had hit every green light, and only had to stop at a few stop signs. After a while, we passed Middle Park.

"Which house is it?" Roxas asked me, slowing down.

"1314." I replied, pointing ahead. Roxas stiffened slightly, but I ignored it and he pulled up to my house. The rain had gotten lighter and I took off his helmet, checking the time. I still had an hour and a half before Jean and Sam would show up. "Do you want to come in and dry off or something? It's the least I could do." To be honest, I wasn't too thrilled on having him come in, no matter how nice he was being.

"For a minute." He said, though he sounded unsure. I walked up to the house, pulling out the spare keys Jean gave me just in case I was _forced _to leave the house. Walking inside, I told Roxas to stand by the door so I could run upstairs and grab towels. I returned back downstairs and handed him the blue towel I hadn't used. I didn't want the floor to get wet.

"You seem like you don't really want to be here." I said, rubbing my hair with the towel.

"No—it's not that. It's just, uh—a friend of mine used to live here."

"Really? In the same house!" I asked, getting hopeful.

"Yeah. That's what I said, right?" I grabbed his wrist and began to pull him up the stairs. "What are you doing?"

"I need to ask you something!" I ran to my room, pulling him roughly behind me. Once we got to my room, I let go of his arm and walked to my art studio. "You said your friend used to live here. Do you know of a key for this room?"

Roxas stood silent for a moment before slowly shaking his head. "No. I don't."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I—uh—I have to go." He turned around and began to walk down the stairs. He seemed irritated. I jogged out of my room to follow him, wondering what his problem was. He was just fine.

"Roxas? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Thanks for letting me dry off." He mumbled, walking out my front door. I only got to the door a few moments later to see him kicking some rocks and lighting up a cigarette. He stood at his motorcycle for a few more moments; the hand that didn't have the cigarette was in a tight fist. He took a few more deep breaths before he got on his bike and drove away.

I slowly closed the door and stood there, staring out the fogged glass that it was made of.

Now I remember why I didn't like him.

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	4. Chapter 4

I sat in my desk Monday morning with a pile of tissues on my desk. I was pretty convinced that I had caught a cold from sitting in the rain Saturday afternoon, and I wasn't too pleased. My uniform was wrinkled since I didn't have the energy to iron it. The blond excuse for hair I had was pulled back into a messy bun and I only had on a little makeup. I leaned my head down on my desk, every so often blowing my nose.

"Someone looks sick." Kairi commented as she placed her bag on the desk. I looked up at her with a playful glare.

"I am. Saturday did me no good." I complained, sneezing into a tissue.

"Then why are you here?"

"My parents made me." She nodded before taking a seat next to me. Kairi had some extra homework to finish up, so we sat there in silence for most of the time. We talked every so often, but both of us had arrived pretty early, so there weren't a lot of people there.

"You look like crap." A voice said playfully. I looked up in bright blue eyes.

"Hey Ventus." I said, blowing my nose. "How bar you?" My nose was stuffed when I said that. He pulled up a chair and sat on it backwards, arms over the back of the chair.

"I'm fine, but I don't think you are." He smirked, putting his cheek on his arm, laying his head down. I rolled my eyes at him and put on a smile.

"Yeah—I'm not." I replied, blowing into another tissue and tossing it into the garbage that I brought to my desk. "I look horrible."

Ventus placed a hand on my shoulder and laughed. "You look fine."

I looked up to see the classroom door opening. In strolled Roxas with that Axel kid trailing right behind him. I was a bit shocked to actually see them together this early in the morning. Axel slapped Roxas's back.

"Fooling around with girls now!" Axel laughed as Roxas sneezed into his arm. He looked up at Axel with puffy eyes and glared.

"Shut up and go away." Roxas said, sniffling his nose. Roxas adjusted his bag in his hand before lifting his head and met eyes with me. He looked like he remembered something before walking over to me, right hand in his pocket. I heard Kairi stiffen in her chair.

"Woxas?" I asked, rubbing my nose with a tissue. He took some tissues off my desk before blowing his own nose.

"Hey." He said. "I hab your towel. I'll gib it back to you when I hab time." He rubbed his hair before covering his mouth to sneeze again.

"You're sick too?" Ventus said, sitting up straight. "What a coincidence. Why do you have Nam's towel?"

"Well, Ben—"

"I'd listen to you, but my name isn't Ben." Ventus snickered.

"Dammit, Ben! You know I'm sick!"

"I'm just kidding." Ventus laughed. Roxas crossed his arms and glared at Ventus. I couldn't help but notice Roxas's behavior change when he was not smoking. Well, at least I didn't think he was smoking. He wasn't being a complete jerk to me. "Why did you have her towel anyway?"

"I drove her home in the storm Saturday." I rested my head in my hand and looked at Kairi and rolled my eyes, but it seems she took an interest in the conversation as well.

"You guys are friends now?" Kairi asked and I coughed.

"I just offered him a towel, alright?" I said, getting irritated at the current conversation. Roxas looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Just gib me the towel wheneber you can." I said softly.

"Yeah."

The teacher walked into the classroom, placing his books on the desk in a loud fashion signaling that class was about to start. Students scrambled to their desks and Ventus pushed the chair back into its spot. Roxas sighed and began to turn around to walk back into his desk before I called out to him.

"Woxas?" I called out, blushing at how stupid I sounded.

"Hm?" He asked, sneezing and turning back to face me.

I pulled out a handful of tissues and handed them to him.

* * *

I rocked back and forth in my chair. It was nearing lunch and our teacher had given us study hall, which made time pass by slower. My nose had cleared up a bit because I kept blowing it, but I had a sore throat now. Kairi wasn't in this class with me and I had no one to talk to. Ventus was in this class, but he was over in the corner talking to some upperclassmen. I think they were both seniors.

I grabbed my sketchbook and began to work on the sketch that I started a few days ago; the garden. I was just beginning to add detail to the flowers. I made sure that I got a good look at it before I walked into school this morning.

"That's really good." Ventus's voice rang in my ear. I jumped slightly, before looking up at him.

"Thanks." He pulled a chair in front of my desk before watching me shade parts of the flowers. I tucked stray hairs behind my ears as I drew intensely, leaning in to get the details just right. The only thing that was bothering me was that Ventus's eyes were on me.

"Wanna hang out?" He suddenly said. I looked up at him, confused, and placed down my pencil.

"What do you mean?"

"Just—you know—hang out." He rubbed the back of his head with a smile and laughed. It was hard not to smile back at him. I tapped my index finger on my chin before I looked up at him.

"Come with me to lunch." I replied. "Kairi takes me to her family's restaurant, so why don't you come too?"

"The three of us?"

"Sora might come too."

I saw a look of disappointment in his face, but I did my best to ignore it. I didn't really understand why he looked disappointed. He asked me to hang out; he didn't ask me on a date.

"Sure then. I'll meet you in the lunch room then." He smiled suddenly as the bell rang. I just nodded and said that I would see him in a few before I packed up my things and went to walk to my locker. I didn't need much for the rest of the day, so I slipped all my books back onto the top shelf and only took out my notebooks and art supplies.

"You ready for lunch?" Kairi said, appearing next to my locker.

"You bet. Is Sora coming?" I asked as I shut my locker.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"Ventus is coming as well. I hope that's okay." I pushed the cafeteria doors open when I asked her. She nodded with a big smile as we went to find Sora. When we found him, Ventus was already with him, so we set out to walk through the back of the school. As we rounded the brick wall, I could tell that that group of kids was there because I heard that music. I could also smell their smoke. It was a wonder they hadn't gotten caught yet. Kairi and Sora were walking in front of Ventus and I as we passed through.

"Roxas just smoke one!" I heard someone say.

"I'm sick. I don't wanna get worse. Don't you think I want to?" Roxas's voice sounded over the music. When we finally got up near the end, that's where I saw Roxas sitting on the ground; legs spread apart and small bags in front of him. My eyes glanced over at him on the ground and he didn't say anything, just nodded his head like he acknowledged us. I saw Ventus wave slightly to him as we passed. Once we got out of there, I decided to ask a question.

"Why does he smoke, Ventus?" He turned his head to me, a serious look spread across his face.

"He's depressed. He says it makes him feel better, I guess."

"He's depressed?" Ventus nodded and I looked down to my shoes, staring at them as we walked. Ventus flung an arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to him.

"Don't worry about it! Everything will be fine." He said with a smile. I tried to smile back at him, but it came out funny.

We walked the rest of the the way to the restaurant by ourselves, since Kairi and Sora never slowed down to meet us. Ventus kept his arm around my shoulder the entire time.

* * *

After school, Ventus and I agreed that he would come over to help me with some English homework that was actually stumping me. He was going to come to my house a little after school only because he had to finish up something with a teacher, so I had given him my address so he remembered how to get there.

I ran upstairs to my room and threw off the pathetic excuse for a uniform for something much better. I slipped on a pair of black jean shorts and a purple and pink floral top that stopped just at the waist line of the shorts. I decided to walk to the bathroom and try to get some color on my face since I was more pale than normal because I was sick.

Jean and Sam weren't home because both of them had to work late, so I made sure I remembered what time they would be home so I could figure out dinner and everything like that.

Pulling my hair up into a ponytail, I walked out of the bathroom just in the time for the doorbell to ring. I skipped down the stairs and opened the door to Ventus's smiling face.

"Hey Nam." He said, walking in and taking off his shoes.

"Hey Ventus." I led him to the back of the house into the living room. There was a large table. "We are just going to sit here." I gestured and he took a seat, emptying his bag onto the table.

During our study session, Ventus had me write down many different notes on theme and tone on the book that we were reading. He read to me passages and made me explain what they meant to him. He even made me to the study questions that were at the end of each chapter. We had taken several breaks; I had attempted to cook grilled cheese as a snack, but ended up burning it.

All in all, we actually studied for two hours.

"I'm so bored." I groaned, letting my head hit the couch that was behind me. Ventus was sitting next to me, head propped up on the table. He let out a yawn.

"As am I. Do you have anything fun to do?" I looked around the house. Jean and Sam weren't big on the word 'fun'. It was work to them, and the fun I was allowed to have was painting.

"Not really." I laughed. "My parents aren't big on fun." He laughed along with me.

Standing, he started to pace around, thinking of something to do. While we were studying, he said Roxas offered to pick him around seven, and it was only nearing six thirty. His eyes wandered my house until he landed on me.

"Stand up." He laughed, moving his hand in an upward motion.

Although I was confused, I complied. "What are we doing?"

"Stand here." He placed his hands on my shoulders and moved me into place. I was directly in front of him. He walked around so he was facing me. He had a hand on his chin and was thinking.

"What?"

He got an idea and pulled off his tie from around his neck and grinned at me. Walking behind me, he took his tie and tied it around my eyes, so I couldn't see.

"What are you doing, Ventus?" I stuttered, and I could feel my face heating up.

"You'll see." He laughed at me, and I kept shifting my weight from foot to foot, nervous on what he was doing. "Stay still!" I complied and stopped moving, but it didn't stop the butterflies.

He got quiet again and I could hear him pacing. I resisted the urge to peek and figure out what he was doing in my house while I was blindfolded no less. Then his shuffling stopped. Before I knew it, his lips were barely, just barely touching mine. Of course, I reacted and jumped back, taking his tie off my eyes.

I was blushing like mad and I stared at him. I had only known Ventus a week!

"That was out of line, I think." Ventus joked, rubbing his hair, blushing. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry." I stuttered. "It was just unexpected." I had a feeling Ventus had a crush on me, but I thought that was me being self centered.

"I know—you're probably thinking that you've only known me a week and such, but I'd like for you to give me a chance. Even if it is just some petty date or something." He shrugged. I stood there for a moment, staring at the tie in my hand. I walked over to him and took his hand, placing the tie in it.

"I guess I could give you a chance." I grinned. Ventus looked up at me and grinned brightly.

"I hope you don't like things too fancy. I'm not one of those really rich guys, you know." He told me, tying his tie back on. I waved my hands in front of my face.

"Trust me, I'm not like that."

"Great! I guess we can just make plans later then." He told me, crouching down to pick up his stuff. I muttered a 'yeah', still completely stunned by what just happened. I heard my front door open, which almost made my heart stop until I heard the voice of the person coming in.

"Hey! You guys in here?" It was Roxas. I thought it was Jean and Sam. Turning to the hall, Roxas walked in and I looked at his attire. He was wearing loose fitting black skinny jeans; they weren't too tight. A loose white shirt and thin gray hoodie under a leather jacket. His hood was pulled up over his hair, pushing his bangs into his face. There was a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"I hope that isn't lit." I glared, and he shook his head.

"Not yet, no."

"I thought I heard you say that you didn't want to smoke because you were sick." I sneezed in mid sentence. Rubbing his eyes, Roxas looked back up at me while Ventus pulled together his loose papers.

"Cigs are fine. I meant I didn't want to smoke my weed." He said like it was obvious.

"You shouldn't smoke it in general." He didn't reply to my statement, only stared off into the distance outside my back window. He was looking around nostalgically. He walked to the countertop in the kitchen and placed his fingers on it.

"The counters are different."

"What was that?" I asked him, not hearing him all that well.

"Nothing." He shook his head and walked back to Ventus and I. "You ready?"

"Yeah." Ventus replied to his brother. I looked at them both and noticed that for identical twins, they didn't look alike to me. Sure, they had the same hair, but their faces were different to me. Ventus had more of a childlike version of their shared features. Roxas's was more chiseled and defined. "Bye, Nam." He said to me.

"Oh, bye Ventus." I waved slightly. Ventus strolled down the hall, but Roxas slowed and turned to me.

"I'll bring you your towel after school tomorrow, alright?" He told me, pulling out a lighter, but not yet lighting anything.

"Sure thing, Roxas." He quickly turned and followed his brother out.

_Sure thing._

* * *

"I'm coming over." Kairi proclaimed over the phone once I called her. After Jean and Sam got home, I ate dinner with them and called Kairi right after to tell her what happened.

"It's around eight." I said dumbly.

"And? I want to talk about this with you in person!" I grumbled and walked into the kitchen to where Jean was. Sam had gone to bed as soon as dinner was over, so that left Jean with the dishes. She doesn't make me do the dishes only because she enjoys it.

I held the phone to my chest when I spoke. "Jean? Can I have a close friend of mine stop by for a minute? It's important." I put on the pleading look when she looked at me.

"Who?" She asked skeptically, rubbing a dish with extreme force.

"My friend Kairi. She needs to talk to me about something."

"What can is possibly be that you can't talk about on the phone?" I didn't want to lie, but I knew that was the only way.

"It's that important. She is upset." Jean rolled her eyes and gave a whatever, so I gave Kairi the okay and she said she would be there in a little while. I told her that if she saw Jean or Sam (well—I said parents to her) that she would need to act upset.

By the time she got there, I had pulled out a red sweater and was sitting on the front porch with a box of tissues for myself. I was still sick, but I had taken some medicine before so I was feeling slightly better. She was wearing blue jean shorts, a black shirt that had New York written on it in silver. It was a bit large. She was also wearing an oversized hoodie that was white, blue, orange, and gray. I recognized it as Sora's. On her head was a blue hat that was tilted a bit upwards and her bangs fell into her face. She ran up to me and sat on the front step with me.

"So, explain it all." I rested my head in my hands.

"He tried to kiss me." I sighed. Not out of happiness or anything, but out of confusion.

"Ven is really yummy! Why do you seem unsure?"

"I've known him a week, Kai. One week and he says he has feelings for me? Don't get me wrong, he's really nice and super sweet, but I'm still confused." She leaned back on her elbows, blowing her hair out of her face.

"I see why you're hesitating, but Ven isn't a player. I've known him for a while, and he barely ever asks out girls. There must be a reason he likes you. There must be something about you." She concluded.

"It's confusing!" I groaned, burying my face in my hands.

"But, you agreed to go on a date, right?" I nodded. "Well, stop worrying! It's not like you are dating him."

"But Kairi—"

"No. Go on this date and have some fun. Have you guys decided what you're doing?" I shook my head.

"No, we decided we would talk about it later. Roxas sort of interrupted."

"What! You left out that part." She leaned in. I swear, Kairi loves gossip. I started biting on my thumb while I spoke.

"He was picking up Ventus, and after Ventus tried to kiss me and after I agreed to the date, Roxas ended up walking into my house and stuff." I glared inwardly at the fact that he walked right into my house. I could swear that I locked the door.

"Are you and Roxas friends?" Kairi asked me for a second time.

"No Kairi. All that happened was that he ended up finding me at the brick wall. I was stuck in the pouring rain and he offered to help me down and then a drive home. I invited him in to give him a towel and then he left, but he forgot to give me the towel. If he never forgot the towel, we probably would never have talked after that. He does pot and stuff, Kairi. Why would I talk to him?" I explained, staring at the full moon above the house in front of me.

"Well, if he wasn't doing drugs…" She trailed off. "Listen—I understand I said stay away from him. But, maybe I should tell you why he is the way he is…" I raised an eyebrow and looked at her.

"Isn't he depressed? That is what Ventus said."

"It's more than that. Let me explain."

"I'm all ears." I leaned back and looked at her with my full attention.

"Roxas and I used to be good friends. He and Axel used to hang out with Sora and all of us. Roxas never used to hang out over in the upper island. He never smoked. He didn't do pot or hang out with those people. Hell—I don't know what he does now. He could be doing worse. Anyway—he never did that before. He was literally just like Ven, but more sarcastic and a cooler sense of style. He was a good student and all the teachers loved him. He was on sports teams and talked to everyone. Axel was the same way.

"There was another person that used to hang out with us. She was only close to Roxas and Axel, though. She and I never really talked. Her name was Xion. She was a really nice person, an artist like you. I never hung out with her though. Roxas and Axel were like her big brothers. They protected her and watched out for her since she was too shy to speak up for herself. Roxas would hang out at her house every day and they would take photographs with his professional camera that he had saved up for and he would take pictures and she would paint him things. They didn't have anything romantic or whatnot, but they were best of friends.

"Things changed one day when Xion had gotten into a car with her parents to go away for the summer. Roxas and Axel had said goodbye earlier that day and came to hang out with us. Xion didn't even get two miles away from the house until she was hit. Her parents had pulled out into the intersection to make a left turn, and as they were in the middle of it, someone who was street racing had slammed into them on Xion's side, killing her instantly. Her parents survived, but moved from here. I bet you can imagine how Roxas and Axel felt. Apparently, that guy had killed a couple a bunch of years back but was never convicted for it. I think he was let off easy and is still out there today."

I sat there staring at her face, feeling horrible.

"So, he does pot because he is dealing with his depression or something?" I asked after a few moments of silence. I wanted to cry for him.

"I think so." There was a loud barrage of music and wheels screeching. A few cars flew down the street, and one was coming down at a normal speed. "Oh, there is my ride. I asked Axel to pick me up. He is my third cousin or something."

"Yeah, okay." I said, hit hard by the story. It made me think of my parents. I knew how hard it was to lose someone.

"Kairi, dammit! Let's go!" Axel yelled.

"I wish I had a car. I don't want to go with them." Kairi mumbled, fixing her hat. "Axel pisses me off, but if I walked like I did here, I wouldn't make it back by curfew. I have no choice. To be honest, I'm scared to get in the car." I pulled her into a hug.

"I promise it will be okay." I looked over her shoulder to see Roxas in the passenger seat. It was a convertible car. Everyone was smoking something but him, I could tell. He seemed down about it. "Hold on." I released her and walked to the car.

"What are you doing?" Kairi asked from behind me, but stayed unmoving.

"Roxas." I stated, leaning to the window. "Can you get out of the car for a minute?" As much as I didn't want to admit it, Kairi was scared and Roxas was the only one I could trust. I pulled him by his sleeve and over to the side so no one could hear.

"What do you want?" He asked a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

"Can you make sure Kairi gets home safe? She's scared."

"Why? Being high doesn't affect your driving." He joked. I didn't find it funny.

"Yeah sure. I'm serious though." I pleaded. He sighed, rubbing his bangs from under his hood.

"I guess."

"Thanks." He went to turn around and walk back to the car, but I pulled on his sleeve. I felt bad for him though, after what Kairi just told me. I pulled him into a hug, wrapping my arms around his neck. He just stood there though.

"What are you doing?" He whispered harshly.

"Never had a hug before?" I retaliated with sarcasm.

"I want to know why you are giving me one." He shot back.

"I'm sorry." I said. He thought I meant sorry for giving him a hug, but I actually meant 'I'm sorry for losing your friend.' He shook his head and walked back to the car. Kairi met me at the end of the sidewalk and gave me a hug before getting into the car and I watched them drive off into the darkness.

_I think hugging Roxas got me a tad sicker._

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	5. Chapter 5

I woke up the next morning throwing up. My cold had gotten worse and I was sick to my stomach. I pleaded for Jean and Sam to allow me to stay home. It took a lot of convincing, but they gave me permission, called the school, and left for work, leaving me alone in the house. I took tons of time looking for medicine to make me feel better. I took fever reducers and cold/flu medicine.

I made myself comfortable in the living room with a bowl of soup. I was wearing a really short pair of black shorts and a red plaid shirt, buttoned to the top. The shirt came down to mid thigh, covering the shorts. My hair was all over the place. I kept raking my hand through my hair to tame it. On TV was one of my favorite soap operas and I had a box of tissues to my right and my cell phone to my left.

All in all, I felt horrible.

Just as the girl on the TV found out that her father was a major serial killer and that her boyfriend was gay, the doorbell rang, jerking me out of my thoughts. Checking the clock, it was only around eleven in the morning, and Jean and Sam didn't tell me that anyone was coming. I unlocked the door, only peeking around the door since it looked like I had no pants on. There, standing in my doorway, was Roxas.

"Roxas?" I asked, letting out a sneeze. "Why aren't you at school?"

"Because you aren't. Besides, I knew I would forget." He handed me my towel after pushing himself in my house. I closed the door and coughed.

"You could have waited, you know. What's the point of coming here? How did you get out of school?"

"They don't care at school. Besides, Ven pestered me to make sure you were okay, since he is too much of a baby to skip school." He kicked off his shoes and loosened his tie more than it already was. "Nice outfit. Are you even wearing pants?"

I blushed and glared at him. "I am thank you! And did I say you could stay?"

"Well—according to what Ven told me, I was to make sure you were properly fed and hydrated. Normally, I wouldn't give a damn, no offense. But, since you getting sicker is probably partially my fault, I felt bad."

I crossed my arms and walked back into my living room, curling back up onto the couch. What made him think that he could walk into my house? But, I giggled at the thought of Ven caring about me.

"What have you done to my brother?" Roxas asked, sitting in the armchair across from the TV.

"What are you talking about?"

"He's walking around like he is lovesick or something. Personally, I don't know what he sees in you." He told me, smirking.

"You are a jerk." I glared. "But to answer your question, I don't know." He nodded and sat there in silence, looking around the house. "Why are you still here?"

"I can't say hi?" He sneezed and I laughed. "What?"

"You look funny when you sneeze!" He rolled his eyes at me and propped his feet up on the table near the chair. I got a better look at him. He looked sick. His skin was getting near as pale as mine and I was watching him struggle with his breathing. "You're really sick." I muttered.

"No shit."

"No really. This is all your smoking. It ruined your immune system. You're getting really sick." I jumped up, not caring that I was practically wearing just a shirt. I dashed to the bathroom and went to dig into the medicine cabinet. I needed to give him something.

"What are you doing in there?" He said and I could hear him walking to the bathroom. I popped out some pills and slammed them in his hand when he reached the bathroom. "What is this?"

"Take it. You're sick."

"Since when did you care?" He took the medicine regardless.

"I don't want you dying in my house." I pushed him out of the way and collapsed back on the couch, getting exhausted. I was so sick that I was very tired and short of breath as well. "When are you going to leave?"

"Why do you hate me?" I raised an eyebrow and sat up, looking at him.

"I don't." I don't hate him. I just don't like him.

"You really make it seem that way."

"You give off the same vibe, Roxas." He sat back down in his chair, sighing. "To answer your question, I don't hate you. I just don't like who you hang around with and whenever you smoke you are always mean to me. You make me act like someone I'm not and that takes me out of my comfort zone. That's what I don't like." I told him, crossing my legs Indian style on the couch.

"I'm sorry you feel like that."

"Do you find it necessary to do pot?" I asked quietly, muting the TV.

"I do. Namine—"He started, looking at me. "It makes me feel better. Even if I wanted to quit, which I don't, I couldn't. I've been doing this for more than two years."

"But why?"

"Think of it as a way to cope." He then ran a hand through his hair. "What am I talking about this for? It's none of your business." His eyes went downcast. "I haven't been able to smoke since I've been sick. I hate feeling like this."

I sat up on my knees. I was close to breaking through his hard exterior. I wanted to help him, as much as I didn't like the way he acted. I wanted to _stop _him from acting like this. "Maybe I can help?"

"Namine, you can't help. It's really nothing you should concern yourself with. You should just go back to not caring."

"You make it hard, Roxas! You hate me, and then you talk to me like you want to be friends! There are two sides of you, and this is the one that I like! This is the one that I want to befriend." I shouted at him, coughing after that because of my sore throat.

"Let me tell you something. When I'm sober like this, I think hard to myself so that I try to act unapproachable because I don't want you to get involved in the things I am. Why can't you be like everyone else and hate me? Why can't you take Kairi's advice and not concern yourself?" He stood from the chair and stood in the kitchen, staring out the back door.

"I don't plan on getting involved, Roxas. I just want you to get help. Or at least open up. Kairi said—"I stopped. Maybe I wasn't supposed to share what she told me.

"Kairi told you what?"

"Nothing." I said, turning back to the muted TV. Roxas walked back over to me, sitting down on the couch. He looked at me with hard blue eyes that scared me a little.

"What did she say?"

"She said that you were depressed." I said, saying the same thing that Ventus told me.

"Did she tell you why?"

"No?" It came out as a question. That always happens when I lie. He shrugged back into the couch next to me. I sighed, but I knew I wasn't out of the woods.

"It's not any of your business, but I lost someone close to me, that's all."

"I know how that feels." I mumbled.

"You can't possibly imagine."

"I can, Roxas." I said, sniffling. I hadn't opened up to anyone, and I really didn't want to open up to Roxas. He had enough on his shoulders; I didn't think lumping my problems on him would do anything. Inside, I wanted to cry, but I forced myself not to. I took the remote and flicked on the volume, both of us sitting in silence until I drifted off into sleep.

* * *

I woke up a little later to find myself on the couch alone. The blanket was draped over me and the TV was off. I looked at the digital clock and it was only around two, so that meant I didn't sleep long. Sitting up and rubbing my eyes, I stood and walked into the bathroom. I cringed at my appearance, since I looked like crap. My hair was even more of a mess than it was before, I was pale, and had bags under my eyes. It then hit me that I didn't know where Roxas was.

"Roxas?" I called, walking to the front door. His shoes were still there. I walked up the stairs and glanced in all the rooms but I didn't see him. I finally came to my door to find him slumped up against my bed on the floor, his eyes closed and he was snoring peacefully. My sketchbook was next to him on the floor, opened to the unfinished picture of the garden I was working on. I sighed and picked it up, closing it and placing it on the bed.

I shook Roxas's shoulder gently, urging him awake. "Roxas." He mumbled something I couldn't quite understand and started opening his eyes. "Why are you up here?"

"Namine?" He muttered, wiping sleep from his eyes. "You fell asleep, so I just walked around the house and I saw your room and your sketchbook. I ended up passing out from being so tired." He glanced over to me, as I was sitting on the floor in front of him.

"Oh. I see." He looked over to the table next to my bed and pointed to a picture.

"Who are they?" I looked to where he was pointed and saw he was pointing to the picture of me and my parents; I was only five. My heartbeat picked up; since it wasn't something I wanted to share. But—I also knew that Roxas has never seen Jean or Sam, it wouldn't matter.

"That's my parents and me." I bit my lip in order for me not to get upset. It was hard for me to talk about them since I never knew what happened to them.

"Ah." He said, and then we got quiet. "Look, after our conversation earlier—"

"No, I get it Roxas." I said, shaking my head. "We can just go back to before. Not talking. I'm fine with that."

"That's not what I was going to say." He told me, resting his arms on his knees. "I was going to say that I know what you're feeling. You want to fix me, but you can't. I'm not a nice person when I smoke, and I'm not going to stop just because you want to befriend me. Namine—you're a nice person, that's why my brother likes you a lot. I'm not going to become friends with you and taint you. We come from different worlds, and our friendship would screw that up. Sure, you like me now because I'm not smoking, but this is only because I'm sick. Any other time, I'm high. I smoke before school, in between classes, all the time. I wouldn't be a good friend." He sighed.

"I see." My eyes went downcast. I stood and walked to the art studio door, placing my hand on the handle, leaning my forehead on the fogged window.

"Just—focus on making my brother happy. I can see that he likes you a lot." He told me, standing up. I turned around to face him. "I've taken up too much of your time. I have to get somewhere anyway."

"You're sick. You can't go anywhere."

He chuckled. "What did I say about not caring?" His phone rang in his pocket and he pulled it out, placing it too his ear. "What?"

I couldn't hear who was on the other line, but Roxas's face showed a look of irritation.

"Who the fuck said that?" He said, glaring at the floor, shifting his weight to his right side. "No, Axel. What he said was way out of line. Are you going to take care of it, or do I have to come down there and beat the shit out of him?"

I walked over to my bed and sat down, finishing some touches on the drawing while he was talking.

"I don't care, Axel. And who?" As he spoke, he held a look of confusion. "Axel—no. I'm not in the mood for that. No, don't come get me. I don't want to."

"Roxas?" I said softly, not looking up.

"What?" His voice was raised when he looked at me.

"Can you stop yelling?" He sighed and turned back to the phone, collapsing on his back on my bed.

"No, Axel it's no one. No it's not Namine. No shut up." I sighed at their phone conversation. The two went back and forth for a while, and Roxas didn't end up leaving like he said he would. They were on the phone even after school let out about an hour later and my phone vibrated. It was a text message from Ventus that said '_Open your door. I came to visit.' _I replied back saying that it was open and I was in my room.

Ventus showed up in my room with Kairi and Sora in tow. By the looks of it, all of them went home before coming here since they didn't have their uniforms on. Ventus was wearing a bright blue, white, and gray plaid shirt with bright white cargo shorts and a gray beanie on his head. Kairi had on blue jean shorts, a long gray tank top that was tucked into her shorts loosely, so it was spilling over the edge. Sora had on black jeans, a gray shirt, and a red and white plaid sweater. Plaid was an interesting trend here.

They all seemed surprised to see Roxas sprawled on my bed, talking on the phone.

"Don't mind him." I said, working on my sketch.

"Nam! How are you feeling?" Kairi said, listening to what I said. She came over and knelt by the bed.

"I'm fine. The medicine kicked in, and I had a good nap." I replied, closing my sketchbook.

"Namine, you missed an amazing lunch." Sora said, rubbing his stomach. He sat against my wall nearest the wall.

"Did I? That sucks. Did you eat my portion?" I joked to him.

"You bet." Kairi laughed and scooted over so she was on the floor next to him.

"Hey Ventus." I said, smiling softly at him. "I see you sent your lackey to watch me until you got here." He walked over and gave me a hug before sitting on the floor as well.

"Yeah—didn't want you dying on me."

"I only have a cold." I replied.

Roxas mumbled something into the phone and hung up with an irritated look on his face. When he sat up to face me, he looked around the room in surprise.

"When did you guys get here?"

"When you were pouring your heart out into the phone." Ventus laughed. Roxas did a mock laugh to humor him and sat up right, stretching.

"Nam! This weekend you have to get better!" Sora yelled suddenly, throwing his arms in the air.

"Why…?" I asked hesitantly.

"There is this party."

"I don't do parties." I said, leaning my head in my hand.

"Of course not." Roxas muttered, and I shot a glare at him.

"I'm going Namine! You have to go and have fun." Kairi shouted at me, leaning forward. "It's going to be so much fun! And you'll meet the rest of our friends." I groaned.

"I'm pretty sick. I don't know if I'll be better by then." I sniffled, wincing at the pain from my throat.

"I bet you will." She said to me. Her persistence was crazy. I sighed and stood, walking over my dresser to get a hair tie to pull up my hair. "You wearing pants?"

"That's what I said." Roxas said, flipping his phone from one hand to the other.

"Yes!" I whined, and I pulled my shirt up to show them my shorts. "I wasn't planning on having people come over, you know." I tied my hair into a low pony tail before crawling back onto the bed.

"So, you going to come?" Sora asked eagerly.

"What day?" I asked, uninterested.

"Friday!" That gave me a whole week to recover. And that was school week wise, not seven days.

"Fine. Whatever." I said with a playful smile. Sora jumped and yelled in a happy manner, a crooked smile on his face.

"Told you so, Ven! I would get her to agree!" Sora pranced around my room. I shot a confused look at Ven, but he shook it off.

"Sora, how about I beat the crap out of you?" Ventus playfully, jumping up and grabbing him into a headlock.

"Let go!" Sora yelled, trying to get out of Ventus's grasp. Ventus looked up for something to torture Sora with. He looked at my balcony with an evil smile.

"Roxas, give me a hand." Roxas jumped up from the bed and tried to help Ventus pick up Sora, but the brunette put up quite a struggle. He kicked Roxas, causing Roxas's cigarettes to fall out of his pocket. Once they controlled him, they pulled him over to the balcony and held him over by his feet.

"You drop me and I'll kill you!" Sora screamed while the twins laughed. Kairi scooted over to me on the bed.

"Did you say something to Roxas? This seems vaguely familiar to old times." She told me, staring at the trio. They were now pulling Sora back over the edge.

"No. I tried, but he didn't listen. After today, I think he and I are going back to not talking." Sora hit both Ventus and Roxas as they walked in. Roxas bent over and picked up his cigarettes that were at the foot of my bed with a smile on his face.

"That was too easy, Sora." Roxas said, standing by my door.

"I agree." Ventus said, sitting behind me on the bed.

"You double teamed." Sora pouted, sitting on the floor. I giggled at him and then began coughing. Ventus took the liberty to rub my back to sooth the coughing.

"Ah—well, I'm gonna go. I have things to do. Later." Roxas said, and I waved, saying goodbye. Kairi stood from her spot on the floor, hands on hips.

"All three of us have a job to do. Boys?" The two looked up at the redhead. "We have to get Namine better by Friday!"

_Oh god._

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	6. Chapter 6

"I don't get this!" I groaned early that Friday morning. I had my legs propped up on my desk and I was leaning back in my chair. It was casual Friday, due to spirit week, so I had on sweats and a hoodie. I ran a hand through my hair as I growled in irritation.

"What? How you are so healthy now that it's Friday?" Kairi smirked at me. I knew why I was so damn healthy. Ventus and Kairi wouldn't leave me alone. Even Sora, who was the one who asked me to the party in the first place, knew to back off when I was irritated with the sudden attention.

"No—I've missed so much school I don't understand this!" I complained. Kairi sighed, leaning over to try and explain the Geometry problem to me once again. Every time the word Trig came out of her mouth, I shut down. I finally gave up, slamming the book closed in irritation.

"What are you doing?" She cried. Probably because I almost smashed her hand.

"I'm giving up." I pouted. I was not one to give up on homework, but work here was so much harder than at my old school.

"Your marks will slip." She scolded. I rolled my eyes.

"Normally, I would care, but right now—I'm so tired and I've done so much make up work for a day." I told her, leaning over to shake Ventus awake. Even though the blond was a morning person, by the time midday hit, he was out; sleeping on anything he could find.

"Mmm—five more minutes." He mumbled, burying his face in his arms. I smiled and the cute expression he had on his face.

"I'd let you—but then you would be late for our next class." I shook him some more and he groaned, pulling himself up.

"I'm awake." He smiled. Looking at him reminded me that I haven't spoken to Roxas since that day in my room. He was serious about not being friends. Sure—I saw him with his friends, and his cold had gotten a bit better, but we made no contact whatsoever. It made me a little sad since I was sure I cracked him.

"I can see." I replied as I slung my bag over my shoulder and followed him out. Sweats must have been a thing today, since Ventus was wearing them as well.

"So—you ready for our date tonight? We never actually said what we were going to do." He laughed, rubbing his head. I tapped a finger on my chin.

"I'm ready, but I can't think of what to do."

"Chinese?" He offered, and I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not the richest person, Namine. Unless you offer to pay, but that would be rude of me." He laughed again. His eyes seemed to sparkle along with the laugh.

"No!" I giggled back. "Chinese is just fine."

We walked to our next class, which was a science class. I wasn't too thrilled about the subject, but Ventus managed to keep me sane throughout the course, telling me jokes. He placed his bag on our adjoining desk.

"Roku!" I glanced up at Ventus to see him calling Roxas. I giggled at the name he called him. It was an obvious displeasure to him, since he glared, but still walked over. For casual day, he was wearing a pair of blue jeans that sagged a little, a long sleeved white shirt with a short sleeved black one over it, and a black and white scarf loosely around his neck. It wasn't dorky or anything and it looked good on him. You could see his iPod cord hanging out of his pocket.

"What?" He said with irritation. I smelled the smell again. I groaned, slamming myself into my chair. Just because he was getting better he thought it was okay to smoke again. It wasn't a cigarette smell either. It was stronger than that.

"I need you to do me a huge favor." Ventus said with a serious look on his face.

"Spit it out, Ven."

Ventus leaned over and whispered into Roxas's ear, causing Roxas to widen his eyes at whatever Ventus said. Ventus leaned back onto our side of the table, and I looked up at the two.

"No."

"Why not?" Ventus pleaded.

"That's not even a favor for you. It's about me. Either way, I said no."

"It will help."

"No." He turned on his heel and stomped off into the corner with Axel. Ventus sighed and plopped down into the chair next to me.

"What did you ask him?" I said sweetly, trying not to sound forceful. Ventus looked up at me and smiled.

"I wanted him to confide in you. You seemed to make up open up that day, but he obviously doesn't want help." Ventus rocked back and forth in his chair.

"His loss…" I muttered, turning my eyes to the board.

* * *

Ventus said that he would be picking me up around six, giving me enough time to get home from cleaning duty and get dressed. I would be wearing what I would wear to the party, since I didn't have time to change. We were going to go out for Chinese and then around nine we would go to the party.

I wasn't too thrilled about the latter, but I sighed, forcing myself to focus on picking out clothes. Glaring at my closet, I threw out a pair on light blue jean shorts, a black undershirt, and a thin, loose, white tank top. Over that I had a deep navy blue blazer that reached my mid thigh and had gold buttons. After I threw that ensemble on me, I walked into the bathroom, trying to figure out what to do with my hair.

"Come on, Namine, think. What would he like?" I mumbled, messing with my hair a bit. I finally decided to make my bangs sweep across my forehead and I allowed the rest of my hair to fall onto my shoulders. Simple, but cute.

Glancing at the clock, it was only five. I was in such a rush; I had so much extra time to do nothing. I sighed, walking out of the room to stand silently in my bedroom. I glanced towards the locked door and walked to it, jiggling the handle.

Worth a shot, right?

I decided that this would be the best time to explore my house. I hadn't had much time to actually look around, so I walked the upper floors, looking in the rooms. I finally passed a room with extra boxes in it. I had thrown the boxes in here by request of Jean, and I had no need to actually stay in there. In the corner there was a closet, so I sighed and opened it. In it was nothing but a piece of paper on the floor. I raised an eyebrow and picked it up, scanning it in my hand.

_I'm really sorry it didn't work out. I'll try and explain tomorrow everything to you when we are alone. I don't want you to be mad at me. Once I get back, we can just pretend that it—_

It wasn't finished. The handwriting looked scrawled at the end, like that wasn't what the person wanted to say. It was my guess that whoever wrote it was in the closet, and wasn't satisfied with it so left it in there.

"Namine! Ventus is here!" Jean called from the bottom of the stairs. I jumped, not realizing how much time I spent in there and stuffed the paper in my pocket. "Namine?"

"I'm coming!" I called quickly as soon as I got into the hallway. Looking down the stairs, I could see Ventus. He looked dashing, you could say. He really did those clothes justice. He had on a gray shirt, a deep gray, and the words were scrawled and illegible. His pants were loose fitting and a dark blue. On his feet, though, was a pair of bright orange sneakers. To pull the outfit to a close, it had on a plain black hoodie. Believe it or not, no matter how dashing he looked, it looked like something Roxas would wear. I guess my face showed that, since he laughed.

"I stole it from my brother's closet." He gestured to himself. "I didn't have anything nice to wear."

"You look good." I smiled. His hair was still a mess.

"As do you." I blushed and walked into my room to grab my black wedges before walking down the stairs.

"Don't be out too late, Namine." Jean said to me.

"I won't." I assured her. I didn't want to be either. Ventus led us out to his car. On our drive to the Chinese place, he made me laugh so many times; I think I was crying from the pain in my stomach. He ended up apologizing, thinking I didn't enjoy the pain, but I assured him I didn't mind. I laughed again at his worried face.

The restaurant was a fairly nice place. It wasn't just some building that sold Chinese food, but the atmosphere was Chinese as well. We were still on the middle island, and chose a place that was close to the house that we were going to later that night. Ventus grabbed us a table in the corner of the place and pulled out a chair for me.

"Why thank you, kind sir." I giggled and he bowed slightly before taking a seat himself. Lifting up the menu, I scanned it. I had gotten used to Chinese food since I ate at Kairi's restaurant plenty of times. Sure, they served other food, but I had taken a liking to the Chinese flavor of things.

"Order whatever you want. I convinced my mom to give me a few extra dollars. She was excited that I was taking you out." He grinned, his eyes peering over the top of his menu. I blushed slightly and nodded, biting on my bottom lip.

"I'll have—"I started to say when the waitress finally walked over to our table. "I'll have the Kung Pao Chicken." I finally decided, handing her the menu. She wrote it down and nodded, looking over to Ventus.

"Um—I'll take the Sweet and Sour Pork." He grinned, and she took his order and walked off. I shifted in the silence for a moment and then he finally spoke. "How are you adjusting here?" I knew it wasn't just horrible small talk since he seemed interested.

"I like it here. It's very upbeat. And I also made some really awesome friends, so that is a plus." I giggled, placing a hand to my mouth as I did so.

"That's good. I remember the day I met you. You were in awe, practically." He laughed at me. I tried to scowl, but I couldn't help but smile.

"Hey! It was a nice view!" I defended myself.

"Yeah—when you looked at me." He laughed aloud again, and I blushed. He was good looking, and I couldn't deny that.

"Full of yourself, much?" I was still blushing.

"You know it's true. Your blush says so." I hated having pale skin because whenever I blushed, it was always so obvious. I could never hide it.

"So what if it does?" I stuck my tongue out at him.

Once our food arrived, the two of us ate and talked about various topics: School, places of interest, people, and most of all, relationships.

"So—Sora has a crush on Kairi?" I asked as I took a sip of my Green Tea.

"It's sad really." He sighed. "The poor guy doesn't know anything when it comes to girls. I mean, we have grown up with Kairi and all, but because of that, he can't really flirt with her."

"What do you mean he _can't_?"

"He treats her like one of the guys sometimes." Ventus took another bite of his food before continuing. "Kairi has always hung out with us while growing up, and she was always so _demanding and forceful _that none of us really saw her as a _girl _until she grew up and matured."

"Well—who wouldn't? I mean there are times when she dresses as a tomboy, but she can dress fairly nice, like the time when I met her."

"Right, and I have been trying to get those two together, since I think Kairi likes him too. Relationships—so complicated." He laughed.

"They tend to be that way; Awkward and complicated." I agreed, sipping my drink.

"We aren't awkward and complicated." Ventus said, making my stomach flutter.

"But _we_ aren't in a relationship." I clarified. I knew, and it was obvious, that he wanted more than a friendship. If him trying to kiss me before didn't prove anything, then I don't know what would. I can't lie and say I wouldn't be interested in dating Ventus, because hey—dating is practically just for getting to know a person.

"We _could _be." He proposed.

"Why, Ventus? Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?" I said with a mock gasp, placing a hand to my chest.

"I think I am. I mean, it wouldn't really change our relationship. We would just—I don't know—have more benefits than a friendship."

I stared at him, considering it. I wasn't the most experienced with relationships, so I didn't know if knowing a person for a short amount of time, and then dating them was normal. But, as I stated before, the point of relationships (I think) is to get to know a person better.

"Sure, why not." I laughed, looking at his surprised face.

"You serious? You're saying yes?" I stood from my chair and placed my blazer back on while smiling at his dumbstruck face.

"I am. Now—pick your jaw up off the table before I change my mind." I teased, pushing my chair in. He grinned, placed some money on the table before walking with me back to his car. We pulled out of the parking lot and I looked at the clock; it was almost nine. I didn't realize how much time we spent at the restaurant. I groaned, not ready for the party.

"What's wrong?" Ventus asked me, making a turn at the light.

"This party is going to be terrible." I sighed. He laughed aloud.

"Don't worry. I know the guy throwing the party. It will be fun." He said.

"You do?" I asked. "Who is it?"

Ventus glanced over at me before making another turn down the street. "His name is Terra. He is a super senior. He and I are close friends." I nodded, taking in the information. We arrived at the house that was throwing the party. It was actually only a few blocks from mine, but the house was at least two times bigger than my house. Teens were scattered along the lawn, and cars were filling up the whole street. I could see the colored lights inside and the music was so loud that I could feel the bass in the car. I could see that the entire house was packed inside; it was a miracle that people were still actually going inside. People were climbing up the walls and people were cheering for them. It resembled a mob rave party more than anything. The song_ Scream and Shout_ was blaring over the speakers when I opened the door. I got out of the car, sighing at the scene. Ventus walked up behind me, placing an arm around my waist, rubbing my side.

"It will be fine." He grinned as we walked up the yard. I then saw Sora running towards us, a grin on his face. His hair was still wild. He had on a pair of light colored gray jeans and a light blue plaid button up, that had a few buttons undone, showing his chest.

"You made it! Lookin' good, Namine!" Sora laughed.

"You look good, yourself." I laughed at him.

"You ready to fuck this place up, Ven?" Sora laughed.

"You bet!" Ventus pumped a fist in the air, and as if on cue, I saw Kairi running towards me at a high speed. She tackled me in a hug, knocking me out of Ventus's grasp.

"You're here!" She smiled, pulling me away to look at my outfit. "You look great!" I tried to talk with her, but the crowd inside was singing along with a song, so it was hard to hear. She was wearing jean shorts like me, and a gray band shirt that was cut into a tank top, the sleeve holes to large, you could see her black bra when she lifted her arms. Her hair was in a messy style and she looked like she had been partying a while.

"Come inside! We will party, and then we talk about your date!" She pulled me towards the door. Ventus and Sora were muttering to each other, like they were planning something. It seemed like so many people, no matter what group they hung out with, were here. I saw Riku, Olette, and Hayner in a corner and I waved to them. Olette waved the most, a grin on her face. People were screaming and cheering to the techno music so it was hard to hear. Kairi's hand slipped from my arm and I noticed I couldn't see her anymore. I looked around, standing still, until I felt a pair of arms around my waist. Turning around, my heart calmed down when I saw that it was only Ventus.

"Let's dance." He mumbled into my ear. I smiled and nodded, taking his hand and pulling him to a spot on the floor.

He shocked me by grabbing my hips while we were dancing. I was facing him, and I wasn't used to actually dancing at parties. If I was at a party, I normally talked, not danced. I tried to hide my burning face even though it was plenty dark. He pulled my hips closer to him so there was no space between us. I gulped, a bit nervous, but I eventually got more comfortable with his movements. I was so comfortable, in fact, that I didn't protest when he eventually turned me around so my back was pressed against his chest. He ran his fingers along my waist as I placed a hand on the back of his neck, never going out of the beat of the song.

I could feel his hair with my fingers as we moved to the song. I wasn't the timid Namine that everyone knew right now. I was just having some fun, and I didn't know where that courage came from.

When the song came to an end, he leaned over my shoulder to kiss my cheek before he said that he had to go get something to drink. I nodded, still a little amazed that I even danced like that and walked around to find Kairi.

I found her messing with her phone in the corner. It seemed she was plugging it into a wall, so she was couched down. I tapped her on the shoulder and she smiled at me, standing.

"I saw you on the dance floor." She grinned and I blushed.

"And?"

"Something between you and Ven?"

"You could say that." I giggled, looking around the room. I glanced towards another corner of the room that was across from us. In that corner I saw Roxas and his friends. Axel was leaning against a speaker, trying to hit on a blond who looked really pissed off. A boy with a bad mullet was talking to another boy; I couldn't see his face through his hair. And then I saw Roxas. He changed since school. He was wearing a pair of black jeans a black button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The shirt wasn't buttoned up all the way, as you could see his chest, and he still had on the scarf from earlier. His posture against the wall made him look, for some reason, irresistible. A song by Pitbull was blasting through the stereo when Kairi spoke again.

"He looks pretty good, no?" Kairi said, noticing me staring at Roxas.

"He cleans up good."

"You can say that. I don't know why he is just standing there, though." Kairi said, though is sounded more to herself than to me.

"Why?"

"He is quite the party animal. That is something he and Ven share." I could already tell that Ventus liked parties. Speaking of Ventus, he walked over to me, sleeves rolled up. He leaned over and spoke in my ear.

"I'll be back. Terra and I are going to run to the store." I nodded and he smirked, kissing me on the cheek and waving goodbye to Kairi.

"That's something alright." Kairi laughed at my blushing face. I pouted and turned to walk away. "Where are you going?"

"To talk to Roxas." I felt I needed to.

"You are going to go over there with all his friends over there?" She asked, shocked. I nodded and continued walking until I reached him. I tapped him on the shoulder and he looked down at me, an eyebrow raised.

"Namine?" He asked me. I nodded and smiled.

"Yep! In the flesh."

"What do you want?" It wasn't necessarily rude sounding when it said it, but there was some edge to it.

"To talk?" It came out as a question. He stared at me for a few more moments before smirking.

"So something between you and my brother, huh?" I blushed.

"You could say that." I tucked my hair behind my ear while I looked at him.

"Cute. Nice moves, by the way. I never knew you could dance like that." He had a teasing tone in his voice, and I glared. "You seemed so innocent to me."

"Well I'm not." I huffed, crossing my arms. This is what I mean by my personality change. I feel as if I need to act this way to actually have a conversation with Roxas. As he was about to speak again, Axel leaned over from his poor attempts at flirting.

"Hey Blondie." He smirked. It sent shivers down my spine.

"Hi." I said it with a flat tone.

"Hey now, I think you can at least give me a smile. I'm not all that bad." He chuckled. I gave him a half smile. I didn't like him too much. Roxas rolled his eyes and blocked Axel out of the conversation.

"Why aren't you with Ven, anyway?" He told me. I turned back to him.

"He went out to the store with Terra?" I said, again as a question. I didn't understand what they needed to go to the store for.

"_Oh." _He said, like he knew what they were going for. "I guess the real party will start when they get back."

"What do you mean?"

"Alcohol." I cringed. "Oh don't worry. Ventus isn't a drinker. But—Terra is his best friend so he probably just went with him." Roxas assured.

"I see."

"Me, on the other hand, I am a drinker." He laughed. _Monster _by Lady Gaga came on the speakers, and Roxas held out a hand. "Want to dance before I get wasted?" I stared at him.

"Why? I mean, why would you want to dance with me? You are the one who didn't want to be friends in the first place and—"I started throwing out words and I couldn't really control what I was saying.

"Shut. _Up." _He told me, grabbing my hand and pulling me to the dance floor. I soon learned that Roxas was a similar dancer to Ventus, but maybe dirtier. Unlike how Ventus and I started dancing, Roxas went straight to the dirtiest part. He took my waist and pressed it against his pelvis and practically started grinding. I gasped a bit and I could hear him chuckle behind me. He was leading us at first, guiding my body to move with his, but I eventually turned the tables and forced him to move along with me, and he laughed.

Hell—I don't even know why I was dancing with Roxas. It made me nervous.

_That boy is a monster. Ma-ma-ma-monster. He ate my heart._

The song blared over the speakers as we continued to move in sync with the song. His hands were trailing on my waist just like Ventus.

When the song came to a close, he leaned in and whispered in my ear. "There. Now was that so hard?"

I turned around and faced him with a raised eyebrow. He pulled me off the dance floor to stand to the side. I was about to walk off when my favorite song started blaring over the speakers. It was the guitar rift that began it and I gasped. Roxas's hand was still on my arm and I felt him tense up.

_Two single hearts on fire, currently on the wire. _

I was so excited that I grabbed Roxas's hand and pulled him back onto the dance floor. I chuckled, "I love this song! I have it on my iPod!" I swore that I heard Roxas's mumbling 'no' under his breath. He took a step back, but I grabbed him again, forcing him to dance with me. Ventus wasn't here to dance with. I placed a hand on my neck and moved my arms up and down as I danced, slowly getting involved with the song.

_You're in a place for fear, lips are for biting here. _

_Let's make this moment worthwhile; let's kill the night and go down in style. _

I looked up to see Roxas just standing there, eyes at the floor. He looked a bit sad. I grabbed his scarf, smiling and moved him around harmlessly for a bit. He looked confused.

_you bring the ropes and chains; I'll bring the pills and games; I can show you pain; and make you say my name  
you will believe my lies; that I'm not like other guys; that sparkle in my eyes; is part of my disguise_

He sighed, running a hand through his hair before taking my hands, making me stop dancing. I looked at him with confusion. I thought we were just having fun. He shook his head and then stomped off in the direction of the kitchen. Confused, I followed him to find him downing a cup of something.

"Nam!" I looked over to see Ventus walking towards me. "You look sweaty. Dancing without me?" I laughed at him and nodded. I looked over to the counter where there were tons of colorful bottles lying about. Roxas was over there with Axel downing more drinks. I didn't know what his problem was.

"I wonder how those taste…" I accidently thought aloud.

"The drinks?" Ventus asked me. I nodded, a little embarrassed. "What? Have you never had a drink before."

"Nope." I said, popping the 'P'.

"I'm not a drinker, but that's a bit sad. Let's get you one." He laughed, and set me up with some fruity drink that he mixed for me. I took a sip of it and grimaced. It was sort of sour tasting and strong. Ventus laughed from behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist.

"It's funny tasting." I saw Roxas peek up at me.

"You don't want it?" Ventus asked. I shook my head. He shrugged and took the cup, finishing the drink for me and then turned me around so I was facing him. We continued to talk a bit more, Ventus standing between my legs. I would laugh at a joke he would crack and we got into telling each other stories.

"If that was me, I would feel like I was flying." I gasped, laughing. He was telling me some story when he bungee jumped. "Like I could reach for the stars…oh that's a song! Twinkle, twinkle little starrrr!" I giggled. I heard a snort from behind me and saw that it was Roxas.

"What are you laughing at?" Ventus asked, eyebrows raised. It was obvious that Roxas was drunk. He shook his head.

"He is just jealous of my singing skills, right Roxas?" I said.

"Totally." He replied back to me, rolling his eyes. I smirked at Ventus and started singing horribly off tune and Roxas squinted at me. "That sounds horrible."

Ventus laughed and nodded. "I'd have to agree Nam."

"What? I'm winning Roxas's heart and soul through song!" I joked, and Roxas rolled his eyes once more before he stumbled off into the backyard.

"You won over my heart and soul." Ventus snorted. I laughed and leaned forward, pressing my lips against his.

Over the next hour, I met back up with Kairi and she and I decided that it was time to test my limits. Much to my misfortune, she and I started drinking any drink in sight. Ventus had gone to talk to Terra, so it wasn't like he was around to stop me. People were cheering us on, and I don't know how drunk Kairi had gotten, because I was pretty drunk myself. So drunk, in fact, that I had gone over and started talking to Roxas (who was wasted) and Axel. I don't remember that conversation too well. Then Ventus found me a little later and told me it was time to go.

"Do we _have_ to?" I giggled.

"Yes." Ventus teased, grabbing my arm. "You need a ride, Roxas?" Roxas turned over to Ventus, squinted, laughed, and then nodded. That's how the three of us ended up walking down the street in search for where Ventus had parked the car. He had left earlier, remember? That's when I started to trip over my own feet, and I heard Roxas chuckling at me, while Ventus muttered something along the lines of 'I should have watched her better.'

"Go get that." Ventus scolded Roxas. I turned around to see Roxas gone.

"Where did Roxas go? I want Roxas! _ROXAS!" _I screamed, turning around a few times.

"I got it!" Roxas said, stumbling back to us from the middle of the street. He handed Ventus his phone, which I assumed he threw. I felt myself being picked up and found myself on Ventus's back.

"Ventus is warm." I muttered, laughing.

That's when I blacked out.

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	7. Chapter 7

I groaned out loud the next morning, shuffling around with my bed sheets. My head was pounding like some bad headache and no matter what I did the pain would not go away. My hand moved around to find the end of the bed, but it could not be found.

"Good morning." I jumped at the voice and looked up to see Ventus's smiling face. He was propped up against the back board and fully clothed. Thank god.

"What are you doing here?" I said with a raspy voice. I scolded myself for whatever I did last night.

"Well—I sort of had to come back to get his idiot," He gestured to the other blond on the floor, "and ended up staying since I couldn't wake him up."

I looked over at Roxas who was asleep right near my bathroom door. He looked very uncomfortable and sick. Ventus sighed and looked at the time. It was almost noon.

"What about my parents?" I yelled, and regretted it as soon as I said it.

"Don't worry. They don't know we are here. And they left a few hours ago." He said, wrapping an arm around my small form. I curled into his side.

"Didn't they wonder why I came home like this?" I figured that I got very hammered last night. I've never had a hangover, but I vowed never to get another one.

"We told them, since you passed out, that you were having so much fun, you fell asleep on the car ride home." I chuckled. "And you were having fun, so it wasn't a lie."

I clutched my head and groaned again. "What did I do?"

"You and Kairi decided that it was time for you to let loose." He told me, rubbing my right arm slowly. I relaxed to his touch and put my head on his shoulder.

"Where is she?"

"I have no idea."

I sighed. Poor Kairi. I wish I knew where she was. I would call her and the two of us would get together and talk about last night. Running a hand through my hair, I pulled myself out of bed and steadied myself, as I was about to fall over.

"Where are you going?" Ventus asked. I pointed to the bathroom.

"Headache medicine." I said, stepping over Roxas to get into the bathroom. I shuffled through the cabinets and looked at myself in the mirror. I looked like crap. My hair was a tangled mess and my makeup was smearing on my eyes. Pouting, I took the pills and heard some moving behind me.

"Oh, you're awake." Roxas said to me, pulling himself off the floor.

"You are too."

"This is the third time—" He got a confused look on his face and then dashed for the toilet, throwing up in it. I wrinkled my nose and Ventus walked over to the bathroom door, leaning on the frame.

"That's weird. You can normally hold your liquor." He told Roxas. Roxas nodded slowly and threw up again. I sighed and filled up a cup with water and gave him some medicine before walking back over to the sink to brush my teeth.

"Even I can, and I've never had alcohol in my life." I said with the toothbrush in my mouth. Roxas positioned himself on the floor near the toilet and took the medicine without compliant. He shot me an annoyed look at my statement.

"That's what you get for partying while sick." Ventus mused, wrapped his arms around my waist when I was done brushing.

"Shut up."

Ventus chuckled and turned me around, kissing me on the lips. I chuckled and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Get a room."

"This is a room." I told him, pulling away and leaning against the sink. "More importantly, my room."

"Oh whatever." He stood and walked out of the room. "Ven, can you give me a ride home?"

"Sure, sure." Ventus said, giving me one last kiss on the lips. "What are your plans for the day?" He asked me as he pulled his shoes on while Roxas stared at me. I rubbed my hair as I thought.

"Find Kairi and discuss the events of last night." I chuckled. "And maybe catch a movie with her or something. I'll call you, though." I smiled, as did he.

"Alright then. Ready Roxas?" Ventus turned to him to see him flipping a cigarette between his fingers.

"I am." His bright blue eyes turned up to me. "Bye, Namine."

I waved. "Bye Roxas. Bye Ventus." Ventus walked over and gave me one last kiss before walking out, following his brother. I ran a hand through my hair before turning back into the bathroom and jumping in the shower.

After my shower, I wrapped myself in a towel before calling Kairi while I looked for clothes. The phone rang a few times before a groggy Kairi answered the phone.

"Hello?" She moaned into the phone.

"Morning, sunshine." I giggled and I could bet anything that she was glaring.

"What do you want?"

"To hang out." I told her while I threw a pair of jeans and a long red plaid shirt on and went to brush out my hair. It was tangled in knots and it was even harder that I could only use one hand.

"I have a horrible hangover." She told me, and I rolled my eyes.

"I do too. Just take something and let's go. I want to talk." I heard rustling on the other end and I assumed she was getting out of bed. At least she wasn't on the floor somewhere. I settled to just brushing out my hair flat and placing a small black hat. The boots fit right over the skinny jeans and were black and resembled hiking boots. I rolled up the sleeves to my elbows and let the large shirt fall below my waist.

"I guess. I'll meet you at your house."

* * *

I pulled myself off the couch once she rang the doorbell. I got my purse off the counter before answering the door. She had on a pair of black ripped, see through leggings, short black jean shorts, a black t-shirt, and a loose low cut, white tank top. Her hair was brushed straight and she had on a black beanie, her bangs falling out from under the top. Over her whole outfit was covered by a gray and white plaid shirt, but it wasn't buttoned. She had on brown boots.

"Let's go." She sighed, resting her arms at her sides.

The two of us walked all the way to the trolley. We weren't going anywhere in particular, just riding from island to island. Both of us couldn't remember a smidge after we got drunk last night. Kairi only remembered getting there and talking with me.

"You seemed to be having fun dancing with the boys." Kairi laughed as we looked out at the water below the trolley.

"Did it look that bad?" I said quietly, in my high soprano voice.

"Not when you were with Ventus, since he is your boyfriend. But with Roxas? Yeah, it sort of did, hun."

I groaned. "I was just dancing harmlessly. He is the one who made it dirty. I even shocked myself." I buried my face in my hands.

"Maybe you like him!" She giggled, pointing a finger in the air.

"No."

"Just a thought." She said, getting quiet.

We stayed on the trolley, switching between different routes. We talked about the party for a little bit longer before changing the subject. I didn't want to think about it much longer.

"So…do you like Sora?" I piped up, leaning back in my seat.

She blushed. "What? No."

"Are you sure about that? I mean—he's a really nice and cute guy. You two get along really well."

"Yeah—well he treats me like one of the guys."

"Maybe that's all he knows? Why don't you treat him differently?" I offered. She seemed to think it was a good idea since she smiled and nodded.

"I guess."

We got off at the next stop, since it was nearing night and we needed to take the route back home. We didn't know just where we were at first; though it didn't take me long to register it.

"Let's not stay here long." Kairi said, and wrapped an arm with mine.

We were in Northwood Heights. She walked up to the ticket master and asked when the next trolley would be arriving. We had to sit here for about a half an hour. Which irritated me, but we sat close on the bench, talking.

"Want to know how high society throws it down?" Kairi suddenly asked.

"Is there alcohol?" Didn't want last night to happen again.

"Just champagne." I thought about it.

"When?"

"Next weekend. There is a party going on at my house for all the—upper class, I guess you could say. I bet your parents were invited."

"A classy party." I said to myself. I was used to parties like that, but probably nothing this high class. "Sure, I'll come."

She smiled brightly. "Great!" Her train of thought was interrupted when a loud sound of a skateboard hitting the rails echoed in our ears. We turned our heads over to the stairs leading up to the platform and a group of guys, maybe four or five, were walking up the steps, smoking and laughing.

"Fuck no!" One of them laughed. "I'm done with crashing parties. Especially ones like that." They were all very tall. The one talking had long black hair in dreads and sideburns. The other behind him had short blond hair and facial hair. He was playing with a deck of cards. The other was a bit quiet, standing the tallest. He had black and white hair pulled back into a pony tail. The loud one turned around and waved his arms.

"Can we go?" He shouted. "You guys are so fucking slow!" He seemed to be yelling to more people.

Kairi forced me to scoot farther away, but our movements caught their attention. I heard Kairi curse under her breath and wrap her arm through mine, facing forward.

"Hey pretty ladies. Are you getting on the same trolley as us?" The loud one asked up. I glanced over, but Kairi said nothing, ignoring them. "I asked you a question."

"And I'm not answering." Kairi snapped at them. He walked over and stood in Kairi's line of vision. He got a smirk on his face when he looked from Kairi and then to me.

"I didn't ask for a bitchy attitude." He growled at her.

Still not looking, she answered him. "I didn't ask for you to harass us."

He was about to reach for her but a voice stopped him. "Leave her alone, Xaldin." My heart stopped beating. Looking over at the source of the voice, there stood Roxas. He had on black pants, a black shirt with white letters, and a blue button up, though it was unbuttoned, and a leather jacket over it. His arms were crossed and a scowl was on his face as we walked over to us. I hadn't realized I was shaking until I let go of Kairi.

"Why? She's being bitchy. I thought we could, you know, have some fun." Roxas's scowl deepened, along with his sickly features. He had dark circles under his eyes, and when I noticed his eyes, I figured out that mine were stinging. I was going to cry. The guy named Xaldin placed a hand on my shoulder. "Come on."

I slapped his hand away, causing him to glare at me. Roxas was standing next to Kairi now, though Kairi seemed unfazed by the situation. She looked more pissed than anything. Roxas looked more pissed with him touching me, and my legs were shaking.

"Don't be a fun sucker, Roxas."

"I said leave them alone."

"What do you care?" The shouting shook me up more and I jumped up from my spot, causing Xaldin to stare at me. My bottom lip was shaking and I felt like a baby. I walked over to Roxas and wrapped my arms around his neck in a death grip, taking deep breaths to calm myself. I felt his arms snake around my waist.

"Just leave them alone." Roxas told Xaldin. "You alright, Kai?"

"I'm okay, Roxas. Thank you."

"Bunch of rich, stuck up, snobs. Never knowing the hardships of life." Xaldin muttered under his breath. That caused me to chuckle. Not from happiness, but from anger. I pulled away from Roxas, but his arm never left my waist.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"Like I don't know hardship." I scoffed. My mind kept flickering back to my parents. It caused me to make a fist, and I knew Kairi noticed, since her face held confusion.

"You _think _you do. But your rich kid problems don't come close. Oh, daddy won't give me money!" Imitating a voice of a perky girl.

"It's not like that at all!"

"What could be so damn bad? Your parents won't let you go out at night? They don't like your boyfriend? Oh wait—they won't let you buy that dress in the store you saw that was four hundred dollars." He said sarcastically. I felt tears brimming in my eyes. "Oh look. She's going to cry."

"That would be true—if I actually had a mom and dad. So why don't you shut up!" I let out sobs. I knew how hard life could be. I lost my family and my adoptive parents don't really love me. I gripped my fists hard and I felt Roxas's hands on my shoulders.

"Oh, Namine." Kairi breathed out. I was sure the rest of Roxas's gang was watching us from behind. I wiped the tears from my eyes and Xaldin kept quiet. I heard the trolley noise in the background and the doors open. Kairi stood, pushing Xaldin out of the way, though he didn't have any smart remarks. Roxas followed Kairi onto the trolley, but the rest of those guys didn't get on as the doors closed.

Kairi held my hand as Roxas put a hand around my shoulder.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Kairi asked me softly.

"I didn't want to remember losing them and start crying like this." Roxas rubbed my right arm gently and sighed.

"You don't have to hold something like this in." His voice was much softer than it was a few minutes ago with his 'friends'.

"I didn't want to get made fun of or anything." I told them, my sobs lightening up.

"Oh, honey. We wouldn't do that!" Kairi gripped my hand, running her fingers through my hair. "Right, Roxas?"

"Of course not." He assured me. I nodded and fell asleep on his arm.

* * *

"That's besides the point." I scoffed throwing my pencil at the floor. It was Monday morning and Ventus and Kairi were trying to explain stuff to me.

"Don't complain." Kairi said. "Pick up that pencil."

I shook my head and pouted. "Nope."

Ventus rolled his eyes at me and pulled the pencil towards him with his foot and picked it up, placing it on my desk. I scribbled some of Kairi's notes on my paper before groaning. My hand cramped and I hated doing work this early in the morning.

"Kairi—can't I just, not do this work?"

"You want me to buy you a dress for this weekend? You do your work." She pulled out her phone. I whined again before copying down more notes. I started actually working for a while before a loud brunette made me lose my focus.

"SORA!" I growled, slamming my pencil on my desk. "I was on a roll too." I whined before Ventus took my hand, though he had a smirk on his face.

"What?" Sora asked me as he sat down in his desk.

"She was working hard on notes and you made her loose her focus." Kairi told him while fixing her makeup. I finished the notes just before class began and I was very proud of myself. Because of all the extra work Kairi helped me with, I was all caught up in class and I understood everything.

Kairi and Roxas promised not to say anything about my family until I was ready to tell everyone else. They had not mentioned the topic after I asked them to not saying anything. I tried not to think about it, but my mind always wandered back to that night. He just made me so angry; I had to prove to him that I wasn't like all those other girls. My eyes wandered over to Roxas who was sleeping in the corner. He still had those dark circles under his eyes and I could hear him cough every so often.

But now I had to focus on the party. Like Kairi had said, Jean and Sam told me Sunday that we had to attend the party. It was a very high class party and only certain families were allowed to come to it. It would be held at Kairi's house, which she explained to me was very big. I had been to formal parties, but Kairi said it wouldn't compare to this party.

Great.

* * *

"Kairi, it's Monday. Can't we wait till later to go dress shopping?" I said, fidgeting with my school skirt. Kairi had dragged me to go shopping, and normally I would be excited if I didn't have a mountain of homework to do.

"Do you understand how big this party is? All the good dresses will be gone!" She was scanning through the racks of dresses. We were in some high quality store where the cheapest thing was around fifty dollars. Maybe that was a bracelet or something. Not that Kairi or I cared. She was paying.

"But I'm tired!" I whined.

"Are you seriously whining? You need to look pretty for Ven!" I raised an eyebrow.

"How is he coming? No offense to Ventus or anything, but doesn't he need to be of 'high society?'" I quoted Kairi. She nodded, picking up a pink dress and then placing it back on the rack.

"He is. Sort of. His father is."

"What?"

"His father left Aerith a while back, but that doesn't stop him from dragging his sons to dinner parties like this."

"Is that how he and Roxas go to Prep?" We shortened the name of the school to Prep. It was much faster. But—in any case—I always wondered how Roxas and Ventus came up with the money, not that I was being mean or anything. It was a very expensive private school.

"Yeah—their dad was ordered to pay for their school. Might as well let them go to a nice school instead of one in Northwood." She told me before handing me a black and white dress. "Put this on."

Sighing, I placed down my bag and ripped the dress from her hand before walking to the dressing room and putting it on. It fit in all the right places. The bottom half was the dress was black, coming up right under my chest like a very high waisted skirt. It was shaped in a pencil style and ended at mid thigh. The top half was white and short sleeved, the sleeves loose. The neck line was heart shaped and it was beautiful.

"Let me see!" Kairi whined outside.

"Did you put yours on?" I asked her with a smile on my face.

"Yes!"

I rolled my eyes and exited the dressing stall. Glancing at Kairi, she had on a black dress that resembled leather, but I knew it wasn't. The bottom portion was slightly poofy and ended in the same place mine did. The top was tight around her chest and wrapped only on one shoulder; the other was bare.

"Pretty." I said, looking at her.

"As are you! Let's get 'em!" We giggled and paid for the dresses before leaving the store.

"So, what kind of music do they play at these parties?" I asked, holding my dress bag close as we walking in the direction of my house.

"Normal kind. Stuff we would listen to." She giggled. "But things always get heated. Something is always wrong and the people always have their camera handy." She waved her hand like she had a camera in it.

"Really?" She nodded.

I have a feeling that the party won't end as well as I thought it would.

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	8. Chapter 8

I argued with Kairi a lot the afternoon of the party. We had spent the rest of the week planning out our schedule and when I would be at her house and such. We never discussed how long it would take to do my hair and makeup. Kairi wanted me to look extravagant, but I told her something simple would be fine. She obviously didn't agree.

"Namine! There will be tons of paparazzi there. If they take your picture, don't you want to look pretty?"

"I thought I was already pretty?" I smirked. She rolled her eyes at me and plugged the curling iron in the wall. I had come straight from school, and I told Jean and Sam that I would meet up with them at the party.

"You know what I mean." She said, ripping off her school blazer. I took a bite of the toast I had made downstairs and unzipped the bag that was holding my dress. Kairi placed the curling iron in her hair. Her goal was to achieve small spiral curls.

"That is going to take forever." I told her, looking into the bathroom. She shook her head and smiled at me.

"Nope!" She said, popping the 'p'. "I'm only doing the hair that frames my face. I'm pulling the rest up into a bun. Your hair is the one that will take a while."

I stared dumbstruck. "I thought we agreed last week that I was going with straight hair!" I whined. I didn't really care if I sounded stupid at the moment. I didn't want to spend too much time on myself. Kairi laughed me off and turned back to the mirror.

"If you want to make it go faster, start on your makeup. I'll let you do that any way you want." She compromised with me. I pouted a little and walked over to her vanity that she had in the corner of her room. Kairi's room in general was large. Even larger than mine. Her bed was king size and was near the middle of the room, taking up most of the floor space. She had a walk in closet and a giant bathroom that had a bathtub that resembled a hot tub in my eyes. Her large windows overlooked the round driveway and gardens that were in the front of her house.

"Don't complain if you don't like it." I laughed and sat down, pulling out the black eyeliner. I wasn't one who went well with color. I was too pale, so any color overwhelmed my skin. I placed the eyeliner to my bottom and top waterlines, lining my eyes in a thin coat. I didn't need much for it to show up and make my eyes 'pop'. I figured I would throw some eye shadow on to darken my eye brows slightly. Once I was satisfied with that, I put clear lip gloss on and threw the makeup back in the bag.

"You done?" Kairi called from the bathroom. I got up from my place and walked over to where she was to see her progress. Kairi had pushed most of her bangs to the right side of her face and clipped them so they were out of her face mostly. On both sides of her head, small, loose ringlets framed her face and the rest of her hair was pulled back in a messy, curly bun that was in the middle of her head. She had also taken the time to put on some dark, shadowy makeup around the sides of her bright blue eyes.

"You look pretty." I smiled, leaning against the door.

"Thank you. And I approve of the makeup, by the way." She laughed, patting the toilet seat. I rolled my eyes and sat down where she appointed me. She took some clips and sectioned my hair into different parts on my head. The look she was trying to achieve was going to have the top half of my hair sectioned off and clipped into a bouffant. It would be clipped into place with faux diamond clips with my bangs allowed to fall in their normal position. My bottom half would be curled into many small ringlets that fell below my shoulders.

"How long is this going to take? I don't want to sit here long." I sighed, twirling my phone in my hand. Kairi laughed and curled another piece of hair.

"I will work as fast as I can, Namine." She did work at a steady pace. Kairi was trying her hardest not to burn me and it became more and more difficult for her when Ventus decided that it would be the perfect time to call me.

"Hello?" I called into the phone with a smile on my face.

"I hope everything is going well?" He laughed into the phone. I heard the banging on hangers on his side of the line.

"If you can call it that. I'm being Kairi's Barbie doll." I whined once again, though a smile adorned my face.

"I'm sure you look beautiful." I blushed slightly and smiled.

"How are things going on your end?" I asked, switching sides so I wasn't in Kairi's way since she was growling behind me about me getting in her way.

"It's going okay. I'm just trying to pick out a tie…" He trailed off and then he spoke with the phone away from his mouth. "No, Roxas! I don't know! Ask mom."

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

"Roxas can't find his tie."

I tried to picture Roxas in a tie, and I cringed. He didn't seem like the type. "Tell him not to wear one. He isn't a tie person like you."

"You think?"

"I do." I laughed as Ventus spoke away from the phone. This time I could hear Roxas as well.

"Don't wear a tie!" Ventus called to his brother.

"Why not?" The other twin had said, and his voice held irritation.

"Namine said not to."

"Who asked her?" He scoffed. I glared at the floor, pretending it was Roxas.

"Ventus—put me on speaker." I asked politely and Ventus didn't ask questions. He fumbled with the phone a bit before I heard the noise that I was on speaker, and I spoke again. "Roxas, just do what I told you to do."

"Why should I?"

"Because I'm smarter than you." I smirked. If he took my advice, he would look a lot better in the tux he was being forced to wear.

"That's what you think." He teased and I huffed into the phone.

"It will save you time, Roku." Ventus said, backing me up. I don't know why Roxas was being stubborn. I thought he would agree to the advice. Maybe because it was coming from me…

"You know how Dad is though." He replied to his brother.

"Make up something." Ventus offered.

"If you need a tie that badly, I'll give you one when we see each other. I'm sure Kairi has plenty." I mumbled the last part to myself.

"Okay, whatever." Roxas sighed, and it sounded like he crashed onto the bed. "This is so uncomfortable." He groaned.

"Don't wrinkle it." Ventus said before talking to me. "Say goodbye to Roxas." He laughed.

"Goodbye Roxas!" I called, sniggering.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Jerk."

Ventus pressed a button and turned the speaker off. It sounded like he left the room and started directing his attention to me.

"I have to finish getting ready, but I'll see you in a few hours." He said, and I bet he had a smile on his face. I did.

"Okay, Ventus. I'll see you soon." I pressed the end button on my phone and looked into the mirror. I was so into the phone conversation that I didn't even notice that Kairi was just now putting the finishing touches onto my hair. The hairspray bottle was on her hand and she was pushing some stray hairs into place.

"There!" She smiled. "You look amazing."

And I really did. "You did a great job."

She smiled at me and the two of us walked back into her bedroom and pulled out our dresses that we bought last week. Kairi's hair worked well with the dress and she really looked amazing. I glanced at myself in the mirror. I didn't even look like myself. There was a more beautiful person staring back at me.

"You ready? The guests will be here any moment." Kairi said, resting a hand on my shoulder.

"It's now or never."

* * *

Believe it or not, the music played at a high class party like this was something that any teenager would listen to at the moment. The only difference was that it wasn't blasting loud. I could still hear myself think and talk in a normal voice. The people that were arriving were people that I had seen in magazines that Jean brought home. Everyone here was from money. They all had some sort of fame in money and wealth magazines. There had to be more than sixty people in Kairi's house, and I was getting overwhelmed.

I ran into Jean and Sam earlier and told them that I would join them as soon as I was done 'helping' Kairi. I didn't want to be stuck with them until I said hello to Ventus. Kairi had to introduce me to various people that spoke to her and told them who my 'parents' were and such.

Finally, after a good hour had passed, I saw the Hewes' enter the party. Ventus caught my eye first. He had on a typical tux; black pants, a white dress shirt, and a black coat and tie. His hair was the same as it always was, and his hands were at his sides while he held a small smile on his face. The next person that caught my eye was Roxas. He too had on black pants and a black coat, but he had on a black dress shirt instead of a white one. He was tieless, and I remembered that I held a white tie in my hands. He, unlike his brother, didn't have a smile on his face. He looked tired.

Then I saw their father. Mr. Hewes was tall. Taller than the twins. He had blond, messy hair like them and blue eyes. He held a stoic expression and his suit was pressed neatly and he had one hand in his pocket and the other to his side. He greeted many people as he entered. Ventus and Roxas caught my eye and the two walked over, probably telling their father that they would be right back.

"Nam!" Ventus smiled, giving me a small kiss and wrapping me in a hug. Butterflies were in my stomach.

"Hey." I told him before turning my attention to Roxas. "Here," I handed him the tie and he quietly thanked me before tying it around his neck.

"You two clean up nicely." Kairi laughed at my side.

"Don't act you have never seen us at one of these." Ventus told her.

"I know, I know." She giggled again before looking around.

"Looking for Sora?" She blushed when Ventus said that to her and nodded slightly. "He should be here soon. He left a little after we did."

The four of us didn't have much time to talk since we had to spend most of our time with our parents. Kairi said it was important to be polite to everyone that Jean and Sam would be introducing me to. I was finding it harder and harder to keep a smile on my face. Jean and Sam kept introducing me as their daughter, and I know that I am their _adoptive _daughter, recent events made me very sensitive to the topic and I didn't like that they were just overlooking an important detail.

"Oh—look, honey." Jean said, placing a hand on Sam's shoulder. I followed her gaze and noticed that it was on Mr. Hewes. "Let's go introduce Namine." She placed a hand on my back and pushed me forward. I knew that she knew that I was with Ventus, but she pretended that that fact didn't exist when she introduced me. My irritation was growing when we reached them because I knew how it was going to go. I tried to keep a happy face but it was growing harder. Ventus didn't seem to notice my mood when we reached them, since he held a smile when he looked at me. Roxas, on the other hand, had more of a concerned look on his face.

"Jean. Sam." Mr. Hewes said, nodding slightly. "I presume that you remember my boys—Ventus and Roxas."

"Yes." Jean answered. "Ventus is a frequent visitor." A light smile danced on her face.

"I see." His stoic expression gave off the impression that he didn't care. "Who is this?" His blue eyes traveled down to me, and I tried my best to give a small smile as I gave a slight bow.

"This is our daughter, Namine." Sam said. He said it, and my irritation hit the top. It was bearable when they introduced me like this to people I knew I would never see again, but this was Ventus's father. This is someone who matters, whether or not I would meet him again. I know it may sound hypocritical or something, considering that I didn't even tell Ventus that I was adopted, but for some reason I was getting upset. The more and more times they said I was their daughter, the pain of losing my parents was growing on me and hurting me more and more.

"I'm not your daughter." I said. It was quiet, but loud enough to catch all of their attention.

"Excuse me?" Jean said. It wasn't like she didn't know what I was talking about. It was more of that she couldn't believe what I said.

I glared at the floor, not wanting to look up. "I said—I'm not your daughter."

Jean gave a nervous laugh while Sam looked angry at me. "What are you talking about?" Jean asked me. "Of course you are."

I shook my head angrily, my blond curls dancing around. "Maybe you should introduce me the correct way." I felt everyone's gaze on me. "You are not my parents. You are my legal guardians and I am your _adoptive _daughter. Stop giving the impression that I am your biological daughter." I said, gripping my hands into small fists.

"You are still our daughter." Sam said with authority in his voice.

"You may consider me your daughter, but I don't consider you my parents. My parents are dead." I said, blinking back the tears. I wasn't going to cry here.

"This is not the place to talk about this, Namine. We will talk at home." Jean said. "I'm sorry." She said to Mr. Hewes. I took in a deep breath and walked away, ignoring the protests of my parents. I heard Ventus trying to follow me, but his father held him back, saying something along the lines of 'I need you to stay here. For appearances.'

I couldn't find Kairi or Sora, so I found a back hallway and slid down the wall. It was quiet. If I could explain how those words hurt me today, they hurt me like a knife, cutting my heart. Jean and Sam were lying to everyone, saying that I am their daughter. I'm sure they didn't want people to know that the only reason they adopted me was because Jean couldn't conceive.

I didn't care about my makeup, or my dress. Tears fell from my eyes. One part of me told me I was being silly and immature. That it wasn't that big of a deal. But the other side of me—the side that I have covering up so that I could help others be happy; that side said that I was right in what I did. That I should have said those things. The tears rolled off my cheeks and I was upset that Ventus couldn't sit by my side. His father wouldn't let him.

"I'm stupid." I muttered to myself. Hearing footsteps, my head jerked up, tears flying off my face. I tried wiping them off, hoping that it wasn't someone with a camera. The place was crawling with those jerks, and I hoped no one caught my pissy mood on camera. That would make Jean and Sam madder. When the person rounded the corner, I looked up to their face.

"Are you okay?" The voice said with a gentle tone.

"Roxas?" I breathed. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and sat down next to me, putting an arm around my shoulder.

"How long have you held that in?" He asked, pulling me close to him.

"Since I've been here." I answered.

"Why?"

"Everyone seemed to have their own problems. I didn't want to go lumping mine on everyone else. Especially you. You are going through so much or something. Something is wrong that is making you upset and I didn't want to make you worry or something." I said, hiding my tears.

"So you are ignoring your own pain? Namine—don't do what I do. Don't hide how sad you are just because you don't want to talk about it. I'm hurting myself, but I don't want to see you hurt. Talk to people about it. I lost someone too, and I know it hurts. I don't want to see you in the same position that I got myself into." He stroked my hair. I understood what he was saying but I wanted to help Roxas. And to help him, I didn't want to think about me. I didn't want to make him worry about my sanity and worsen his problems. If I didn't talk about it—everyone else would be happy.

"If I talk about it, people will worry about my sanity." I said. "I'm going crazy. I don't show it, but I'm hurting. I don't know how my parents died, and Jean and Sam don't make it any easier for me. They treat me as a pet rather than a child and today was the last straw. I'm falling apart, and to make it worse, I can't even paint. That is what helped me in the past." I sniffed.

Roxas let out a heavy sigh. "People will worry now that they knew that you held this in. My family worries about me all the time and I still don't talk about it. It's hard, I know. It feels like it's something that you can handle on your own, but you can't. Worrying about everyone else's happiness will drive you over the edge, Namine. Worry about yourself first; not others." With that, he pulled something off his neck and took my hand, placing the object in my hand.

"What's this?" I asked, holding it closer to my face. It was dim in the hallway. "Oh my." I breathed. In my hand was a black key. It was an older key, obviously rusting.

"I think you should have it now. I—I trust it to you." He said, not looking at me.

"You had the key to the art studio?" I asked quietly, still looking at it. "How?" Roxas stayed quiet. "Roxas—didn't you just say that you shouldn't hold things in?"

"It was Xion's." He said suddenly. "The art studio was something she had built because she loved art, like you. She and I were in there all the time." He had a nostalgic look in his eyes. "She and I would have paint fights and my mom would get so angry when I would come home with my uniform covered in paint. She gave me the key when she left, saying that I was to make sure no one went in until she got home." He got quiet.

"I'm sorry, Roxas." I tried to give the key back. "It's something special to you. I shouldn't be allowed in there."

"That's the thing." He said to me. "I want you to go in. I trust you." I looked into his eyes and it held sincerity to them. A smile covered my face and I nodded.

"All right. Thank you." I placed the key around my neck. I looked back up into his eyes and he smiled back at me. "A rare smile." I laughed.

"Don't get used to it." He told me, though a smile played on his lips. "Remember, Namine. I know you want to focus on everyone's happiness, but stop ignoring your suffering. You don't want another moment like this." He looked down into my eyes.

As I was about to answer, a flash went off, causing me to squint and look around Roxas. Roxas flipped around and glared at the paparazzi.

"Hey!" He yelled, and he jumped up, but the man ran off. "Damn."

"I have a bad feeling about that." I chuckled nervously. Roxas nodded in agreement.

"You should find Ven."

I nodded and was about to walk off, but I turned around. "How come you got away, but not Ventus?"

"If I can't sneak away from people, I wouldn't fit the typical 'bad boy' role, now would I?" He raised an eyebrow. "Ventus is too good."

I tapped my chin, and then nodded. "See ya."

I walked back into the main room where all the people were. I looked around and saw Kairi and Sora talking, obviously flirting when Sora tucked hair behind her ear. I turned my head the other way to find Jean and Sam talking to a different group of adults. Ventus was sitting on the couch alone, looking at his phone. I walked over to him.

"Room for one more?" I asked meekly. He looked up at me, concerned.

"Are you alright?" He asked me, sitting up straight, placing a hand on my knee. I nodded.

"I am now. I just needed to cool off. Sorry about that."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

I sighed. "I wasn't ready." Ventus made a face of understanding.

"I understand, just don't hold things in. I'm here to talk to." I gave a faint smile and allowed him to pull me into his side as he kissed me on the head, but this time, butterflies didn't go off in my stomach like they normally did when he was affectionate.

I looked up and saw Roxas across the room, an arm around Sora, interrupting his moment with Kairi.

When I saw him, butterflies when off in my stomach.

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning was probably the worst morning in my life. Not only were Jean and Sam pissed at me, Ventus and Kairi were as well. Roxas and Sora really didn't care. I didn't really think the events that were going to take place after I pulled myself out of bed were going to happen. I knew Jean and Sam were going to yell at me, but calling Ventus and Kairi was not in my plans. Pulling myself out of bed, I trudged over to the shower to clean myself. Yesterday sucked. I was in for a lecture and I couldn't avoid it. I was also very confused on my feelings about Roxas. Why did I get that nervous feeling yesterday?

Scrubbing my face after my hot shower, I slipped back into my bedroom and pulled on a pair of high waisted, floral print shorts and a black shirt that was loosely tucked in. My blond hair was pulled into a loose bun on the top of my head, and I slipped the key around my neck. I didn't actually go inside the art studio yet. I was thinking about doing that later. When I left my room, I could hear Jean and Sam arguing angrily. It wasn't with each other, but about me. Taking in a deep breath, I descended down the stairs and rounded the hall until I came into the kitchen. Their bantering stopped as they faced me, scowls on their faces.

"Sit down." Sam ordered, and I listened. I didn't need to get into any more trouble. Sam looked back up at Jean, a newspaper clutched tightly in his hand. "Let's deal with one problem at a time." What else did I do wrong?

Jean placed her hands on the counter, her hair done up in a tight bun. I guessed they would be late for work. "Namine, do you understand how much you embarrassed us last night?"

I stayed quiet. I assumed she was going to go on.

"Your little outburst did not just stay between the Hewes' and us. You have to remember, that place is crawling for people who love gossip. It was spread around, and rumors have been started. That behavior was completely out of line. You had no right to treat us like that, especially in public."

"Did you ever think how I felt? I'm an adopted child living in a house where I am not treated apart of the family." I said, trying not to raise my voice. Sam looked sternly at me.

"What in the world are you talking about? Cloud Hewes thinks low of us now! He thinks we can't control our own daughter. He is a highly influential person." Sam told me.

"That is what I am talking about! You keep referring to me as your daughter, when I am not. I am not comfortable being called that when I am treated more like a pet than your own child." I confessed, ignoring that statement about Mr. Hewes.

"We do not treat you like that." Jean stated, folding her hands together.

"Yes you do. I know that I was wrong, and that wasn't the time or place to bring this matter up to you, but every time you told someone I was your daughter, instead of your adopted child, it hurt my feelings. It felt like you were lying to the public." I looked down to my hands on my lap.

"Well now the public knows all right!" Sam slapped the newspaper in his hand onto the counter top. "They know that and much more!"

I had a startled and confused look on my face and I grabbed the newspaper from in front of me. On the page was a picture. It occurred to me that it was the picture that man took of me and Roxas in the hallway last night. We were staring at each other.

**A SECRET ROMANCE? HEWES AND MANZANO.**

That was the headline over our picture. My heart rate quickened and my mouth dropped, gripping the newspaper tightly as I read the caption aloud.

"Namine Manzano, adopted daughter of Jean and Sam Manzano, and Roxas Hewes, son to Cloud Hewes, were seen together in a dark hallway at the public gathering last night. The two were seen gazing into each other's eyes. Manzano was also seen publicly displaying affection to Ventus Hewes earlier that evening. Could she be cheating?" I recited breathlessly. "Excuse me!"

"I knew you were with Ventus, but you are now going behind his back with his brother?" Jean said, an angry tone in her voice.

"No!"

"Then what is that?"

I focused on the picture, tears brimming in my eyes. "He came to comfort me when I ran off. I was crying, and Mr. Hewes wouldn't let Ventus leave his side. There isn't anything between Roxas and me. "

"The way you two are looking at each other says otherwise. Do you realize what this has done to our reputation?" Jean scolded.

"But it's all a lie!"

"How can we believe you?" Sam said sternly, giving me a hard look. I looked up at him with pleading and confused eyes.

"What gives you reason not to?" Sam sighed, but it was an angry sigh. He was fishing through his pocket until he pulled out his finding on the table. There, in front of my eyes was a cigarette. Just a lone, unsmoked cigarette. "That's not mine."

"It was under your bed, Namine." Jean said to me.

"It's not mine!"

"Then who's is it?" She shrieked at me.

I stumbled over my words, taken aback when she yelled. "It's Roxas's! He and Ven were messing with Sora and it must have fallen out of his pocket or something!" I tried to keep my voice down, but it wasn't working.

"I've never seen Roxas Hewes smoke." Sam said to me.

"I'm not lying! I've never smoked in my life." Jean and Sam stayed quiet, staring for a few moments. Jean took the cigarette and handed it to me. "Why…?"

"Call Roxas and tell him to come get it." She said. "If he takes it, then we will believe you." I stayed silent before I let out a sigh and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Roxas's number.

He didn't even say hello. "Have you seen the paper?"

I sighed. "Yes, Roxas."

"Ventus is really pissed. He won't listen to a thing I say."

"I figured as much." I glanced up at Jean. "That's not why I am calling, though. I need you to do me a favor."

"I'm pretty much under house arrest. My mom is angry with me for the paper. She said that it was horrible of me to do to Ven." He told me. I shook my head.

"This is important. Sneak out for all I care. I need you to come here."

"I don't think that would be very good publicity." I understood what he meant. My house must have paparazzi around the area.

"Please?" He sighed over the phone before I heard him stand.

"I'll be there soon. This better be important." He hung up before I could do anything.

"He is coming." I said quietly before standing up from my spot at the counter and going to sit on the stairs in front of the front door. I wrapped my arms around my knees and rested my head. This was so stupid. Jean and Sam were talking quietly in the kitchen about my punishment as I clutched the cigarette in my small hand.

It wasn't long before I heard the rumble of a motorcycle in front of my house. It was a few seconds before the doorbell rang. I went to answer it, but Jean held up a hand as she walked quickly into the room and opened the door. I glanced around her to find Roxas standing there with his helmet under his arm. He had on a pair of jeans with a belt, a navy blue shirt and a black leather jacket.

"Hello, Mrs. Manzano." He said to her as she let him in the house. She didn't reply, only stood off to the side as Roxas's gaze fell on my upset form sitting on the stairs. "What's wrong?" I stood up without a word and took his hand, placing the cigarette inside of his. He looked down and raised an eyebrow at me.

"What are you doing with this?" He asked. "Why are you giving this to me?"

"It's yours." I said quietly, not meeting his gaze.

"How did you get it, though?"

"Apparently it was under my bed."

Roxas looked confused. "Under your bed…?" I nodded and he thought for a moment before it all clicked in his head. "You called me all the way here to come get this? I have plenty more."

"Sam and I thought it was hers." It was the first time Jean spoke his Roxas was here. He looked over to her. "Regardless, Namine, you are still in trouble. Thank you for clearing up this issue Roxas. You may leave now." It was a demand that came out of her mouth.

"Fine. Namine, call Ventus and clear this up." He said to me before he turned and lit the cigarette and walked back to his motorcycle. Jean slammed the door shut.

"You can call Ventus in your room, which you will be spending most of your time in for the next week." I didn't bothering arguing. There was no point. I pulled myself up the stairs and closed my door, locking it behind me. Pulling out my phone, I dialed Ventus's number with shaky hands.

"Why are you calling me?" Ventus asked with an irritated tone. "Shouldn't you be calling someone else? Like my brother?"

"Ventus, it isn't what it looked like. There isn't anything between Roxas and me."

"That's hard to believe, considering he just snuck out to go to your house."

"Ventus, he was just coming to pick up a cigarette that my parents thought were mine! I had to make sure they knew it wasn't." I tried explaining.

"Why was it there in the first place?"

"When you and him were messing around with Sora that one time. His cigarettes fell out of his pocket."

"Right." He didn't believe a word I said. "That picture sure looked like you were looking in each other's soul or something."

"It wasn't like that…"

"Sure." I groaned into the phone. I wasn't getting anywhere.

"Ventus, I promise you. There is nothing going on between me and your brother. You know for a fact that we are just barely friends. You know that I do not like that he does drugs and smokes. Roxas is a nice boy, but I'm with you and not him." I pleaded. Ventus was good for me, no matter how small the attraction I had to Roxas was. No matter how I began to feel about Roxas, everything I said was true. I didn't need a druggie as a boyfriend when I had a very good and polite boy right here.

"Nam, it's just really confusing." He said in a hushed tone.

"If I wasn't under house arrest for ruining my parent's reputation, I'd come over there and beg for forgiveness in person, but I can't. I need you to trust me on this. Roxas was only trying to make me feel better that night."

"Alright." He finally said. "But you need to call Kairi."

"Why?"

"She is a bit mad at you as well."

"Why in the world is _she_ mad at me?" I exclaimed into the receiver. I didn't do anything to Kairi.

"She is mad because of the same reason I am—er—_was. _She was friends with Roxas, but you know she still hasn't warmed up to him as much as Sora or you have." I sighed.

"Okay. I'll give her a call. Are you still mad at me?"

"I guess not. Just confused. I'll talk to Roxas." He told me in a heavy voice.

"Okay…" I trailed off. Things were now shaky between us over something dumb.

"Bye, Nam." He said quietly into the phone.

"Goodbye." I said just as soft. He clicked off the line and I sighed, falling back onto the bed. I stared at my ceiling for a moment before I pressed my speed dial and pulled the phone back up to my ear. I didn't want to get chewed about by another person, but I didn't have much of a choice.

"Namine." Kairi said.

"Kairi, I called to tell you that the paper was lying." I told her before she could make any accusations.

"Was it now? I know we are great friends, but how could you hide something like this from me?" She said.

"Didn't I just say that the paper why lying? I'm not hiding anything. I don't have anything with Roxas."

"I want to believe you Namine, I really do. But it all makes sense."

"What makes sense?" I questioned. What in the world was she talking about? What made sense?

"You may say that there is nothing going on with Roxas, but you past behavior with him says otherwise. You danced intimately with him at the party, and you clutched to him that night at the tram station." She explained.

"That doesn't mean anything. I am with Ventus, Kairi. You know that."

"I know, Namine. But you can't deny that there isn't something with Roxas. I'm not saying that you are cheating on Ventus. I'm sure that you aren't. You are not like that. But—there has to be something there. You are blatantly lying to my face if you say there isn't."

"…" I didn't know what to say. She knew me too well. There was something there, at least for me. Last night proved it. But it wasn't enough to make me cheat on Ventus. Ventus was good to me and he would always be there for me, even if that picture in the paper tried to prove otherwise.

"See? How could you lie to me?" Kairi asked.

"Kai—if it makes you feel any better, I just realized it last night. All that happened before that sleeze bag took the picture was Roxas came to make me feel better. That's all. We were talking, and the guy happened to get a good looking picture to go along with a story he made up and the gossip about me being adopted that leaked out." I explained, resting an arm over my eyes.

"Okay…"

"You still don't believe me." I sighed.

"No. I do. It's just—I'm confused."

"As is everyone else…" I mumbled.

"What are you going to do?"

"What can I do? I'm with Ventus, and I plan on staying that way. You said yourself that Roxas isn't good to hang around."

"You seemed to ignore that piece of advice. You talk to him."

"Not on a friendship level, Kai." I don't know why I kept trying to force myself to believe that we were not friends. It was obvious we had a friendship going.

"Either way, just don't hurt Ven."

"I'm not planning on it." There was silence over the phone for a few minutes.

"Alright. Do you want to hang out?" She asked me.

"I can't. House arrest. My parents are pissed at me."

I heard her click her tongue. "Okay. I guess I will see you at school."

"Yeah." I clicked off the phone without saying goodbye and stared at the art room door. I wanted so badly to go in, but I decided against it. Even though Roxas gave me permission, I didn't think I should be the first one to go back in there. It was Roxas. And until I got off of this predicament, I would have no guests and I didn't think that Jean and Sam were too fond of Roxas at the moment.

All I could do was fall back into my bed and take a nap. Maybe read a book to pass the time of the weekend. I couldn't see anyone until school started up on Monday anyway.

* * *

"Nam." Kairi's voice rang above me. I didn't look up. My head was resting on my desk, my hair sprawled around me. I didn't do anything to it today, just allowed it to do its thing.

"This weekend sucked." I moaned, looking out the window, away from her. I knew she was still irritated with me, but it wasn't her place to be mad, so everything was getting better.

"You're telling me. Things will get better." She reassured me. I sighed and sat up straight and rested my head in my hand as I looked at her.

"Yeah, sure. Ventus still seems mad, though he says he isn't. People around me are talking, and it's quite annoying." I said. It was true. All through the halls I could see people whispering. I wanted to walk over and slap them and tell them it wasn't true. It didn't help that Ventus wasn't at school yet to walk by my side.

"What do you expect? For him to forgive you so easily, even though you didn't do anything? Of course he is still mad, Namine. What matters is that he didn't break up with you. He still wants things to work out." I nodded, rolling a pen on my desk.

"I'm a bad girlfriend."

"No you aren't. The paparazzi are the bad guys. And who can blame you…" She lowered her voice. "Who can blame you for being attracted to Roxas?" She had a sly smile on her face. She loved the fact that I was still with Ventus, but ever since I told her that I had attraction to Roxas, she has been teasing me to no end. She probably hopes that I will get so annoyed with her that the attraction will go away. I hope that as well.

"Shut up." I said, looking at the doorway. Ventus was strolling in with a bagel in his hand. He had an amused expression on his face as Sora strolled in behind him, talking.

"I'm telling you the truth!" Sora yelled.

"Yeah. I want to believe it and all, but really? It happened like that?" Ventus said, plopping down next to me. "Hey." I looked at him. He put on his best smile for me, though I knew he was still irritated with me.

"Hi." I replied.

"As I was saying!" Sora yelled, standing in front of Ventus's desk. "It's true!"

"What's true?" I asked him, confused.

"Sora says that he and Kairi are dating." I raised an eyebrow and looked over to the auburn haired girl on my left.

"What!" I was shocked. She seemed to leave this out of our phone calls last weekend.

"Well, you were having your own issues at the time; I never thought to bring it up." Kairi blushed, looking up at Sora.

"I told you." Sora said in a sing song voice.

"Wow. I'm happy for you guys!" I smiled, clapping slightly.

"Thanks!" He told me. "Oh, Namine. I made plans for you and me to get ice cream next week as soon as you can leave the house." Sora looked at me, hands in his pockets.

"You did?"

"Yeah. We need to talk." He winked and I raised an eyebrow.

"Okay?" He chuckled and walked to sit in the desk in front of Kairi since class was going to be starting soon. The door opened to show a giggling Axel and Roxas. The two of them seemed happy, but I knew better than that. They were just high. Axel traveled back into one of the desks into the back of the classroom. Roxas sat in his usual seat that was a few chairs in front of me. Ventus gave a hard look at his brother's back but said nothing to him. I could tell that he was still irritated with Roxas, but it seemed that the talk that they had on Saturday helped out their frustration.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me!" I whisper shouted to her. She shrugged guiltily and had a smile on her face.

"I guess the cat's out of the bag, huh?" I laughed and turned to face Ventus.

"Want to go out to lunch, just you and me? We can talk about things." I asked, placing a hang on his leg. He turned to me, his blue eyes full of different emotions.

"I'd like that." I smiled at him and turned to face the board.

* * *

"Shoot me. Right now." I complained as I walked into gym class. I kept getting weird looks from many people, and it was pissing me off. I crossed my arms over my gym shirt and walked out into the gym, strolling over to Kairi.

"Are you alright?" She asked me, standing from her stretching.

"No. I am not. Everyone is talking, making up stupid stuff." I ran a hand through my hair. I didn't have Ventus in this class. He and I had gone to lunch and talked up a storm. I explained to him everything that happened that night since they all arrived. I told him about how irritated I was with Jean and Sam, all the way up to the next morning, leaving out the minor attraction detail. I could get over that on my own. He seemed to calm down and get a bit of closure knowing for sure what I did, and that all of the stupid romantic gossip was a lie. He and I were on good terms now, but it sucked that I couldn't be with him at the moment.

"It will blow over, trust me." She rubbed my shoulder. "Well, in a minute."

"Why can't it be now?" I complained and she pointed behind me to show Roxas walking over to me, a happy, _high, _air floating around him. "Ugh, go away."

"What? Why?" He laughed.

"You are making the rumors worse by talking to me." I crossed my arms, ignoring the weird feeling I was getting.

"Oh, just tell them all to go to hell. It's a bunch of crap. Once the next big thing happens, they will forget." He said, rocking back and forth. "Oh, Kairi. Are you and Sora dating?" He laughed again. Apparently he thought everything was funny. Pick an attitude when you are high, Roxas! Mean or nice!

"Yeah." She said. I could tell she was uncomfortable.

"Roxas, you stink. Go hang out with Axel." I said, plugging my nose for emphasis.

"I do not."

"You smell like smoke."

"No."

"Yeah you do."

"No, I don't." He glared at me. I gritted my teeth.

"You should seriously quit the whole smoking thing."

"And you should quit being a prude." I heard Kairi gasp behind me.

"I am not a prude." I glared.

"Yeah you are. Look up the definition. You won't try anything."

"Just because I don't want to do drugs doesn't make me a prude." I said back. I knew the meaning of prude, and I didn't think I was one. I just had morals. I heard the teacher trying to call the class to attention, but I ignored him.

"You are just scared. Poor Namine, such a prude. She won't try anything that isn't acceptable in society." He laughed, though it lacked humor.

"Like what, Roxas? Like what?"

"Let's see: Drugs, Alcohol, and _sex._" He said. I grew uncomfortable, but who wouldn't?

"Just because I don't want to doesn't make me a prude, Roxas." I told him, gripping my hands into fists under my crossed arms.

"It does. You are scared."

"I am not. Let's see—I don't want to do drugs and alcohol because they are bad for you. And remember, I had alcohol once. And sex? I was planning on waiting until marriage. Sorry if I am old fashioned, but I don't want to give up my virginity to some moron." I said, holding my ground. People began to stare. "I know you have done drugs and alcohol, but I bet you haven't had sex, so who are you to call me a prude?"

"How do you know that?" He said, eyes narrowed.

"Have you?"

"For your information, I have." He said. I groaned.

"Well, Roxas, now that we have established that you aren't a prude, just stupid, I think you should leave me and my 'prudeness' alone." I said, humoring him.

"Whatever." He said, giving up torturing me and walked away.

"This is why." I told Kairi before walking to my spot.

* * *

I slung my blazer over my shoulder as I stood at my locker at the end of the day. I was tired, irritated, and hungry. School was going to be hard for a while. As I scanned through my books, figuring out what I had to take home, the blond that I was on good terms with came to talk to me.

"Hey, Nam." Ventus said, leaning against my locker, his bag slung over his shoulder. "I heard you and Roxas had an argument."

I groaned, putting my head in my locker. "Please don't talk about it. Here I thought he was a nice guy, and then he goes and gets high and pisses me off." I complained, standing up straight again, throwing my English books into my bag.

"I thought the argument was funny. Or what I heard."

"What did you hear?"

"That he accused you of being a prude." I pouted, slamming the door. I wasn't on cleaning duty, so Ventus and I could leave together today.

"I'm not."

"I know. You just have _respectable morals_." Though he said it with a laugh.

"Shut up." I whined, and he laughed once more, slinging an arm over my shoulder, pulling me close.

"I'm just teasing."

We walked out of the school building in time to see Sora and Kairi standing together, holding hands. The two of them were having a conversation, and I thought it would be best if I interrupted.

"Hello!" I chimed, walking up, causing them to blush. "How are the lovebirds?"

"Great!" Sora said, obviously comfortable. Kairi blushed and nodded, agreeing.

"Yeah. Namine, I'm going to call you after school. I have this hard worksheet, and we all know that Sora can't help me." Kairi laughed. She gave Sora a kiss on the cheek when he looked upset.

"That's fine. Call a few times though. I have to clean as part of my punishment." I moaned. Jean and Sam were punishing me hard over something stupid.

"That's fine. I won't be home till a little later anyway. Sora and I are going out for a while."

"Lucky." Ventus rubbed my shoulder again. "I hate this stupid grounding thing!" I complained.

"I know. Being grounded sucks." Ventus said. "I can't ever see my girlfriend." I pouted again as everyone laughed. Kairi's head shot up after a minute or two and she spoke.

"Have you guys figured out where you are volunteering?" She asked, and I was confused.

"Yeah. Ventus and I are going to the local gym to help out." Sora said, and Ventus nodded.

"What? Do we have to do this?" I asked. I had no idea what they were talking about. Since when did we have to do this?

"Yeah. It's the end of the year thing for our grade. Since we go to a Prep school, they expect us all to have talent and stuff. For example, I am volunteering at a dance studio to help some kids. I got into this school with my good grades and my dancing." She told me. "We each have an elective that shows our talent. Why do you think you have art?"

"Oh. Well, where am I supposed to volunteer? An art studio?" I asked.

Sora shook his head. "It doesn't have to be at an art studio. It could be at, for example, a hospital to help kids who are sick learn to draw or something."

That didn't sound too bad. "How many hours do we need?"

"A hundred." Ventus answered.

"Better get started." I laughed.

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	10. Chapter 10

I was ecstatic. It was the middle of the week; a Thursday. Jean and Sam agreed to let me off house arrest so I could go looking for a place to volunteer at. And it was only if I promised that that would be the only thing I would do. I was not allowed to hang out at friends' houses' or anything. I didn't mind. I got to go out and paint.

I came bouncing into my last period class with a smile on my face. Kairi had missed our morning classes together, so this was the first time I had seen her all day. She wore a confused expression as I came to sit on her desk. My seat was on the other side of the room.

"Just a few days ago, you were like 'screw the world'. What is with the change?" She asked me. I hopped from one foot to the other.

"I'm done with house arrest!"

"It's only been a few days! No way!" She asked, dumbstruck.

"I know! Well—I'm not allowed to go anywhere else besides the place I am volunteering at, but yes! I'm finished!" I smiled, resting my small palms on her desk.

"Wow—this is great! Where are you planning on volunteering?"

I had been scanning through the phonebook last night, trying to find places to volunteer. I had called hospitals and studios, but some said either they had volunteers, or they weren't accepting any. Most of the places I called shot me down. Except for one. I wasn't too thrilled about the location, but there wasn't much I could do about it.

"Leavenworth Rec Center?" Yeah, that was the name.

Kairi pondered on the name for a minute before her eyes widened. "You are going all the way to a Northwood Heights Rec Center!"

"Yes." I stated. "It was the only place that was accepting."

"That's crazy, Namine. Remember what happened last time we went there? And we weren't even ten feet inside the place!"

I sighed. "There isn't much I can do about it, now is there?" She stayed quiet. "Anyway—I'm going home to change after class and then I will be on my way there. I need to meet some people and such." She nodded and I walked over to my seat, which was so conveniently in front of Roxas's. I was still angry with him for calling me a prude on Monday. I didn't care if he was high or not, it still pissed me off. It wasn't like he was drunk. He was still aware.

"Nice to see you're chipper today." I heard Roxas mumble from behind me.

"And you aren't?" I shot back. "Why don't you go smoke some more and get happy?" I could feel him glaring at my back with that statement.

"Listen, I'm sorry."

"I don't accept the apology." I said, flipping through my notebook to find a clean page.

"Why not?" He asked. I didn't understand how he could be so dumb. It was obvious that I was irritated with what he said to me. Why should I forgive him so easily?

"You hurt my feelings, Roxas." I said bluntly.

"I don't like people telling me what I should and shouldn't do." He told me. He was talking about how I told him he should stop smoking.

"So you call me a prude? Roxas—I told you to stop because it is really bad for you." By this time, I had turned completely around in my chair. "You should really stop smoking pot. It's harmful and disgusting. Cigarettes too."

"And what? Lose all my friends and be the depressed kid? I don't know what I'd do to myself if I didn't have this as a release. It helps, Namine. Would you rather me turn into someone who considered suicide or something?"

"For one, no I wouldn't. I don't even want to hear you say that again. And two—" I took a breath. "You wouldn't be depressed and have no friends. Those people can't be real friends, Roxas. You have me."

"You can't even stand to be around me." He said quietly. I shook my head.

"That isn't true. I can't stand to be around you when you are high or drunk or anything. It scares me." I told him. "All I want to do is help."

"Did I tell you that you shouldn't even bother?"

"Roxas, have you pictured what this could do to you in the long run?"

He got silent.

"I know you think it helps you forget and makes you happy. Maybe it does. But, did you ever stop to think that there are better ways to make yourself feel better? I lost both my parents, and I don't even know how, but you don't see me going around and doing drugs."

"No you just torture yourself to tears." He said back to me.

"My point is—there are people you can see, and friends you can make that aren't into that stuff." I said softly, in my high soprano voice.

"I have a friend. We are dealing with this together."

"Who? Axel? You won't help yourself when he does the same stuff."

Roxas took my hand, which startled me. "Just—don't bother Namine. I know you feel you need to help me, and I really do appreciate it, but I have been dealing with it on my own before you came here." He lifted his hand and tucked a strand of blond hair behind my ear. "Stop worrying about me. I'm not about to go and die. I'm fine. I can deal with it."

I bit my lip to stop myself from blushing. "Okay."

I turned my attention to the front as we had two more minutes until the bell rang. Ventus strolled into the classroom with a huge smile on his face. He waved to me and I waved back, a smile on my face. It was empty of emotion though.

I just stared at the board.

* * *

I had changed into a thin white dress with a brown sweater and black slip ons before I started making my way to the shuttle. I kept replaying the moment where Roxas pushed my hair behind my ear, and I could stop myself from feeling strange about it. I tried to shake it out of my head and replace it with Ventus, but it wasn't working. I mean—their faces were almost the same!

The shuttle ride kept reminding me of that night. The night where I was made fun of, and the night Kairi and Roxas were the first to find out that I was adopted. I still had a slight fear of those guys who bothered me, and I knew if I ever got into trouble like that again, Roxas might not be there to save me.

"Hello?" My cell phone had been vibrating a lot, but I kept losing signal until I got off the shuttle.

"Namine! I just wanted to make sure that you were safe." Kairi's vibrant voice rang through the phone. I could hear Sora yelling 'Is that Nam? I wanna say hi!' in the background.

"I am. The shuttle I took was near the place, so I am a street away according to my iPhone map." I said. I had been looking at street signs to make sure I didn't miss the place. It wasn't quite dark yet, though the sky had a tinge of orange in it.

"Alright. Can you see the place now?" She asked. I turned a corner and saw a building. The outside was pure white, and the paint was chipping. The windows weren't the cleanest and the garden wasn't kept at all. It was overgrown. I wasn't expecting some nice place, though. The other sides of the building and some of the sidewalk had graffiti on it and there were bottles all over the sidewalk.

"Yeah. I'll call you when I leave." I told her and pressed end. Pushing open the glass door, the inside was a bit cleaner than the outside, though it wasn't by much. I could hear kids playing basketball in the gym and there were many rooms with counselors and other kids around my age in them.

"Are you Ms. Manzano?" A strong, but soft voice said from behind me. I turned around to find a tall woman with long black hair staring at me. She had a small smile on her lips and a clipboard in her hands.

"Namine." I extended a hand, and she took it. She was wearing a pair of paint stained jeans and an oversized hoodie. I felt bad for my poor clothes if I was painting today.

"I'm Tifa. Just Tifa." She smiled. "I'm a counselor here. I help with the arts program."

"Great." I laughed. "Just send me to work. Whatever you need me to do, even if it isn't painting."

"I'm glad you are such a hard worker. Much better than our other volunteer, though I don't oversee his work. He helps out in the gym." I nodded, taking note that there was someone else here. She continued her explanation as we sat down in some chairs in front of the windows.

"So what is it that I will be doing?" I asked her, crossing my legs.

"Well—for the beginning, you will be helping out with us counselors in motivating our troubled youths into art. Most of them, as you can guess, think art is a waste of time and refuse to work. Your job isn't so paint as much as it is to motivate them." I nodded. "At the end of your stay here, right before summer begins, you will help everyone in painting a new mural outside the building. Everyone, not just art programs, will help with this. And you get to help put your style into as well." She smiled at me.

"Great." I said with a grin. "I'm really excited."

As I was filling out paperwork for my volunteer work, a car pulled up outside. I didn't look up, I just heard it. The brakes were horrible. The front door opened and I recognized one of the voices.

"I'm sorry that I have to drive you, I just need to make sure you actually come. These one hundred hours are important, you know." I glanced up and saw a woman that I was very fond of. Her green eyes glanced over to where I was sitting with Tifa. "Oh, Namine!"

"Hello, Aerith." I said, watching her walk over to me.

"Are you volunteering here?" She asked, pulling up the strap of her purse. I nodded, checking off a few more boxes. "Hi, Tifa. How are you and Zack?" She asked sweetly.

"Good, thank you. I'm still waiting for that proposal." She joked as I handed her back the paperwork so she could file it. I looked up into Aerith's smiling face.

"Why are you here, Aerith?" She moved out of my vision to point behind her. There stood Roxas. He had on a pair of loose dark blue jeans, a white shirt, and an even darker navy sweater. On his head was a beanie that was loose on his head, allowing his bangs to spill out from under it. He had his phone in his hand. He didn't bother to look up. I didn't think he knew I was there.

"Roxas?" I asked lightly. He looked up, startled and walked over.

"Namine? Why are you here?" He asked me with a raised eyebrow. I stood from my seat, seeing as I was now the only one sitting.

"Volunteer work." I said. "You?"

"Same."

It got awkwardly quiet.

"So you two know each other?" Tifa then said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, I guess." I told her. An older man came out from one of the offices behind Roxas. He was blond, but it was pale, and looked like it would turn gray soon.

"Roxas, it's time for you to start. They are waiting for you in the gym."

"Okay, Ansem." He looked back over to us. "Bye mom. Later, Namine." He turned around, but I spoke once more to his back.

"You volunteering here is quite ironic, don't you think?"

"That's what I said." He called back to me, not turning around. Aerith bid her farewell to me as Tifa led me down a hallway that was parallel to the one Roxas had gone down. There were many rooms, but she took me to one all the way down the hall. Inside were a handful of kids, though I didn't recognize any of them. Tifa took me to the storage room and handed me an apron.

"You might want to put this on. Don't want to ruin your nice dress." She smiled. I lifted it over my head before I took a manila folder that had the names and information on everyone here. It was just so I could get familiar with them. She explained to me some rules as we stood in the corner. When she was finished, I looked up above the storage room door, and there hung a picture. The girl, who didn't look much older than fifteen, was smiling and holding a few paint brushes. She had black hair that fell just below her ears and bangs similar to how Kairi wore hers. The girls' eyes were a bright blue and she held a gigantic smile on her face.

"Who is that?" I asked, pointing upwards. A pained, but controlled look spread across Tifa's face.

"Xion Greene." The name. I didn't recognize the last name, but I knew the name Xion anywhere. "She helped out a lot when she wasn't busy. It was amazing, since she didn't even live on this island. It's such a shame that she is gone. One of my best helpers."

"Was she?"

"Yeah. She loved art to no end. And when she would come in here, she would always complain about her friends. That boy Roxas, and another, Axel. She would have different stories to tell me about them all the time. They were really close. Such a shame that those boys went down a terrible path after her death." I nodded slowly, looking at her. So this was Xion. "Enough of this topic. Get to work!" She said with a fake angry tone. I laughed and walked out to begin my shift.

* * *

"Do you want to take a break and eat?" It had been an hour since I had been there, and it was near dinner time. I had rotated with many different people, and I hadn't been very successful to get kids to paint.

"Sure, Tifa." Another person had taken my stuff and I followed Tifa to the small kitchen that was in the back.

"Sorry if it isn't anything high class. We don't get too much funding." Tifa apologized as she put in a microwaveable pizza.

"It's fine, trust me. Food is food." I sat at the table. As she set the time for fifteen or so minutes, she joined me at the table with some napkins.

"So—Roxas. You friends with him?" She asked suddenly.

I shrugged. "I guess. He irritates me."

"Why?"

"I don't know. He can be nice, and then he infuriates me." I said, not being able to come up with a straight answer.

"Hm—he never used to be like that."

"I don't know. Infuriating jerk." I said the last part out loud, but it was for my own benefit.

"Is that what I am now?" I glanced over to the doorway to see Roxas standing in it, one hand in a pocket, and the other holding his beanie. I nodded, and he shrugged, pulling up a chair to the table.

"Yeah—you are." I glared. Tifa glanced at us two before she stood.

"I have to go get something. I'll be right back." She said before standing. I pouted as I watched her leave me alone in a room with Roxas. Roxas stared out the window as I stared at him.

"Can I ask you something?" I mumbled.

"What is it?" He didn't look away from the window, though.

"Did Xion volunteer here?" His eyes went to me when I spoke that time.

"How did you-?"

"They have a picture of her in the art room." I answered him, not letting him finish. "She was very pretty." I said quietly.

"Yeah, she was. Very pretty." His voice was distant. His eyes then opened wide, like he remembered something. "Did you go into the art studio yet?"

"No." I shook my head. "I didn't think it was right. You should be the first one to go in it. It's special to you, right?"

He looked confused. "But I said you could go in."

"I thought about it, trust me. And I want to. But you should be the first one in there." I placed my hands in my lap, playing with my fingers.

"I see." He coughed. I glanced up at him. "I'm fine."

"I'm truly sorry. It's really sad, you know?" I said my eyes stinging. "She was killed in a car accident, right?" I didn't like the topic of car accidents. The only reason was because of the current dreams I had been having. It was like a memory. It wasn't clear, but I saw two people in the front of the car out of eyes that were small to the world. One moment it was happy, the next there was screaming and pain. I shook my head, trying not to think about it. I was pretty sure that they were my parents. And that it was a car accident. I didn't have the courage to talk to Jean or Sam about it.

"Yeah. Some moron hit her side of the car doing ninety." He told me. "Her parents were okay, though. Minor injuries."

"It's so sad. It isn't fair." Half of me was talking about Xion right there, even though I never met her. But the other side of me was talking about my parents. And I think that is what made a tear fall down my cheek. Roxas's hand reached over and wiped it from my face.

"Why are you crying?" He said with a forced grin. "I'm the one who should be sad."

"Because—no one should have to die that young. And you and Axel shouldn't have had to go through such a loss." I said, looking up at him.

"It's not like I could control it."

"What did you do? When did you find out?" I wanted him to open up to me.

"I was at Kairi's. She, Sora, Ven, Axel, and I were hanging out when I got the call from her mom. I didn't really know what I felt. Axel was in panic, pulling me to the car. I had sort of a moment where my mind went blank while Axel was in panic and sadness. I didn't cry. No—I didn't cry. It wasn't until I had gotten to the hospital. Xion had died a few moments before I arrived there. I was in the room, and Axel was in a chair, sobbing. I don't think I had ever seen him cry. No—never. I stared. I thought to myself, why? What did she do? There was no reason for such a wonderful, amazing girl to be killed.

"I didn't cry until I walked over to her bedside. Just seeing her like that; bloody and hurt. It killed me inside. I haven't been the same Roxas since then. I've lost my perspective on life. I used to be a carefree boy. I loved to take pictures alongside Xion while Axel would hang around and talk to us. I used to have a job, and volunteer here. I used to have friends and be on sports teams. I lost all that. Xion took it all with her that day. I had given up everything to her. She meant everything to me. In a sense, I died with her too. And you know what scares me?"

He stayed silent for a moment. "What?" I asked gently.

"You are so much like her. You remind me of her all the time." I stared, wide eyed into his eyes. "You are so much like her, in fact, that part of me wants to be around you. Like you are Xion. But the smarter part says that you aren't. You are Namine. You have this edge to you that Xion never had. Xion and I were great with each other and were able to be around one another because I wasn't a jackass. I am a bad person now, Namine. I'm stupid." He sighed on the last word.

Roxas stood from his chair, pushing it in and was about to walk out the door before I stood and grabbed his wrist. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled him close. It took a few moments, but he allowed himself to hug me back.

"I'm sorry." I said into his chest. I pulled away and looked up at him with a sad smile. "I can see that I remind you of her and it hurts. I'll just go."

"I don't want you to go." He said suddenly.

"What?"

"Just because you remind me of her, doesn't mean I want you to go. As much of a jackass I am to you, I still enjoy being around you. I just—I just try not to show it because I don't want you to get the idea that I'm a nice guy or that we can hang out." He shrugged. "Besides, you obviously don't like hanging around me."

"Roxas—it's not _you _I don't like being around. It's the stuff that you do. I think you are a great guy when you aren't under the influence. You can talk to me and open up. You can make me feel better when I am sad. Whenever you smoke, you either hate me or act so happy you think you can say whatever you want." I told him. "Isn't there any way that you can deal with your sadness that doesn't involve harming yourself this way?"

"No. I don't want to talk to anyone about it."

"You talk to me."

"I know. Only because I feel like you can understand." He said.

"I do." I said softly.

"Okay, kiddies! Pizza's done!" Tifa ran back in the room, a stack of papers in her hands. She placed them on the table before pulling out the pizza and placing it on the table as well. "Well? Dig in."

"I'm not hungry." Roxas sighed before leaving. I sighed too before pulling a slice of pizza and shoving it in my mouth.

* * *

"You're leaving now?" Kairi asked me. It was around eight and the sun had long past set.

"Yeah." I told her, standing outside the rec center. It was a bit chilly so I pulled my sweater tighter around me.

"You are going to walk by yourself?" She asked me, worried.

"I have to." I spoke into the phone. Around here, there weren't many lights and the shuttle was about 10 blocks away. Out of the corner of my vision, Roxas stepped out of the building, lighting a cigarette before he looked at me.

"Want me to walk with you?" He asked from the steps. I stared for a moment before nodding.

"Never mind, Kairi. Roxas said he would walk me there." I said. I heard Kairi sigh in relief.

"Good. Wait—why is he there?"

"I'll explain it tomorrow. Bye." I said, calling into the phone before I hung up. Stuffing it into my bag, I sauntered over to where Roxas stood before crinkling my nose at the smoke.

"Sorry. I'm stressed." He told me, pushing me in the direction of the station. I nodded a bit before walking with him in the darkness. It was a comfortable silence as we walked. That is until loud music started coming towards us. It was a car that pulled up along the side of the road. I could see Axel driving it and another boy poked out his head. He had a really bad mullet.

"Roxas!" Axel called, leaning to see around the other boy. "Hi Namine."

I waved slightly, not feeling so much irritation towards him anymore. "Hi."

"Where are you kiddies walking so late?" The boy with the mullet asked us.

"I'm walking her to the station, Demyx." Roxas answered, letting some smoke out of his mouth.

"Oh? Want a ride? Cause I was going to ask if you wanted to come to my gig."

"Gig?" Roxas asked.

"I'm playing my sitar at the Triangle Club." Demyx answered him. "Want a ride or not?"

Roxas casted a glance at me, and I bit my lip before nodding unsurely. Roxas put an arm around my waist as he led me into the car.

"Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you." Roxas said to me once we got into the back seat. "Ven would kill me."

To my surprise, Axel drove at the speed limit. I figured that had something to do with Xion. It was a nice ride. Axel and Demyx were joking with each other, and I figured they weren't smoking in the car because of me, because the three of them had put out their cigarettes or whatever before I got in the car. It still had the smell, though.

"Damn." Axel said, and I peeked forward as the car slowed down.

"They should learn not to stand in the middle of the street." Demyx said. When I looked up, more than ten or so people where in the street, laughing at our car.

"What do you expect?" Roxas's deep voice said from next to me. "It's Seifer's gang."

Axel stopped the car and Demyx leaned out the window, half his body going out. "Get out of the way!"

"Make us, assholes!" I heard someone with a hat say.

"I'm about to." Axel mumbled. All of them were now blocking our way. The only way we could get around is if we went backwards or on the sidewalk. And I really needed to get home. The back door opened and I saw Roxas getting out. I tugged on his hand.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

"I'll be back."

I watched him walk towards the group with his hands in his pockets.

"Like hell I'm letting him out there alone." Axel said, getting out of the car, after he put it in park. Demyx turned around and smiled at me.

"Stay here, Nami. " Demyx nicknamed me as he stepped out and followed Axel. I couldn't pick up on what they were saying, since I was in the car. Axel was shouting something at a tall, blond boy and Demyx pushed away another buff guy. As Axel and Demyx were arguing with other people, Roxas stood his ground, standing alone with another boy. I could barely see his face, though the anger was apparent in his body stance. They exchanged a few choice words, and the next thing I saw was the taller boy's fist flying into Roxas's face. I gasped as Roxas's staggered back, but he never fell. His face was turned towards the ground, though he was now turned towards me. He spit out something on the ground and his eyes looked up at me.

We locked eyes for a moment and then I figured out that it was blood coming out of his mouth. He must have seen the horrified expression on my face. The car light was still on. The boy yelled something to Roxas, but his gaze never left mine. Roxas's fists clenched as he turned around to punch the boy. Just as I was sure he was about to hit him, Roxas's fist never hit the boy's face. Roxas said something to him and spat on his shoes before he straightened up and came to walk back to the car. My hands were at my mouth and my eyes were wide.

Before I could blink, the boy grabbed Roxas from behind and threw him to the ground. At that point I let out a scream as he hit Roxas again. It had broken out into a fight when Demyx and Axel tried to help him. As soon as the boy hit Roxas again, I jumped out of the car and ran to him, screaming.

"Stop it!" I screamed, a hand in my hair. I stopped a few meters before Roxas. I was breathing quickly and my hand clutched my hair tightly. "Stop hurting him!"

Roxas took the guys' moment of distraction to push him off and jump up. Roxas's lip was busted, blood flowing out of it.

"Who the hell are you? Get out of here, pretty girl." He said to me, which made me shake even more.

"You don't talk to her like that." Roxas growled. "We will settle this later." Roxas glared, and then walked over to me, turning me around and leading me back to the car. Axel and Demyx stayed out of the car while they exchanged harsh words with the other gang. I sat in the back seat with Roxas and I couldn't help but look distressed when I saw his face. He was bleeding and I tried to wipe away some of the blood with my finger.

"You need to get home and clean up before that gets infected." I said through my heavy breaths. He shook his head, pulling my hand down.

"I'm fine. You need to get home." He said as Axel and Demyx walked back to the car.

"I can be late. I want to make sure you get home." I said sternly. "Axel—take us to Roxas's."

"No." Roxas said, glaring at Axel.

"Yes." I yelled.

"Sorry, Roku. She's right. You are bleeding from the head too." He pointed. I hadn't even noticed it. Roxas sighed and let his head fall back. Roxas's house was even farther from the station but I didn't care. I had calls coming in from Jean, but I didn't answer, so I shut off my phone. I'd tell her that there was a fight going on and I had to walk the long way around. And then I would make up something about missing my shuttle because of it.

Roxas's house stood perfectly quaint like last time. His house light was on up on his floor. Roxas climbed out of the car in irritation as I followed, giving my thanks to Axel. I ran a hand under my eyes when we walked into the front door. I didn't notice all my black makeup had smeared.

"Were you crying?" He asked me as we walked up the stairs.

"I guess." I didn't even notice. "At least I'm not bleeding."

"This is nothing." He said, wiping some blood from his forehead.

"I'll give you nothing!" I shouted as I walked into his door. My outburst caused Ventus and Aerith to look near the door.

"Roku! Oh my god!" Aerith said. "I'll get the first aid kit! Sit down!" Roxas groaned but complied and sat down in the shag colored chair near the couch. My dress was now dirty and had slight blood marks from my hands. I walked over to where Ventus was sitting and sat down next to him, sighing.

"What the hell happened? Why are you with Roxas? And why is he hurt?"

"We volunteer at the same place. And I was going to go home. He was making sure nothing happened since I was going to walk alone. And then—stuff." I said. I didn't feel like explaining it. Ventus pulled me to his side and didn't lean into it, but I didn't pull away either.

Roxas eyes were set on me.

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	11. Chapter 11

I woke up to the sound of clanging dishes and the smell of pancakes in the air. I didn't register what was going on or where I was for a few minutes. When I realized, I shot up off the couch that I was on and looked around frantically. Aerith was standing in the kitchen over the stove, flipping pancakes with a smile on her face, and Roxas was angrily doing the dishes. He had a bandage around his head, though it was hardly visible through his hair.

"Good morning! Would you like some pancakes?" Aerith asked me. I just stared at her wide-eyed. I never went home last night. I was in going to be in so much trouble. Roxas noticed my panic and spoke to me.

"Don't worry. Ven called you in last night. He made up something about how you had to take a long route home and missed the last tram for the night. He said that he saw you at the station and said that you could stay here. Of course they believed Ven." He laughed slightly.

"If you want breakfast before you leave for school, I suggest you eat now so you have time to get ready." Aerith said with a cheery tone. She placed a plate of pancakes on the table with the condiments.

"School…" I said as I stood up. I looked at my appearance. I still had on the clothes from yesterday, and there were some slight blood stains where I wiped my hands like an idiot. "I don't have my uniform!"

"Don't worry. Ven is gathering up something you can wear. I'm sure the school will understand if you make up something." Roxas said in an offhand manner when I sat down to eat. He pulled out a chair across from me.

"Can you not stare while I eat?" I asked him, irritated. He held up his hands in defense. I noticed he was already dressed in his uniform, though it was unkempt like usual.

"I got it!" Ventus cheered as he walked out of another room which I guessed was Aerith's. "Oh, morning!"

I nodded to him, still sleepy. I didn't understand how he could be so cheery. Once I finished up eating the last bits of my food, I thanked Aerith and walked over to where Ventus had laid my clothes. He had gone to change himself. On the couch were a white skirt, a brown tank top, and a blue and red plaid shirt.

"I hope it fits. The skirt and tank top is mine. I think the plaid shirt is Roxas's. He is about as skinny as you. I told Ventus that his shirt might fall off of you since he is more muscular." Aerith said, handing me a bag of items to do my hair with. I nodded and walked over to the bathroom to slip my clothes.

Once I had pulled them on, I did my hair in one loose French braid. My bangs were pulled back with the headband I had on, and fray hairs were going around my head. There wasn't much I could do about those. I wiped my makeup off with some water and scrubbed my face. I'd have to go to school without makeup on.

Stepping out of the bathroom, I held my dirty dress in my hands. "What should I do about this?" I ran my finger over the stain, recalling the events of last night.

"Oh, I'll wash that for you." Aerith smiled.

"Thank you." I told her. I came to the realization that I didn't have any of my school stuff. "I don't have my stuff."

Roxas looked at me for a moment before handing me his school bag. "Use my books and stuff. Do you think I'm going to use it?"

"Oh—I can't take your stuff."

"Just take it." He said, walking to the window, lighting a cigarette. I sighed. My eyes flicked over to the door that Ventus had just left from. He had his uniform on and his bag over his shoulder.

"Let's go!" He said, taking my hand and pulling me out of the apartment, Roxas following close behind.

* * *

I ended up making up a story on how my parents had washed my uniform with some colors and it was stained. I told them that I had ordered a new one and it would be in tomorrow. I felt horrible about lying of course, but I had no choice. They were mad at me, and told me to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Trudging to first period with Roxas's bag on my shoulder, I sighed. Yesterday scared me. I seriously thought that Roxas was going to get beaten worse than he had. What would have happened if I wasn't there? I worried so much for him, it was slightly ridiculous.

When I arrived in first period, Kairi was confused at my wardrobe. Who wasn't? I had been getting stares all morning. I placed the bag onto the desk before taking a seat next to her with a sigh.

"Why aren't you dressed?" She asked me, tucking her auburn hair behind her ear.

"Long story. I'll explain at lunch." I told her, not wanting to relive the events. She nodded, but I knew she would probably ask me the same thing next period.

"How was your first day?" She asked me, a teasing smile on her face. "You get to work in the same building as Roxas."

Ignoring her snide Roxas comment, I answered her. "It was nice. I get to help kids get into art. Though—not all of them are willing." I told her, a pout in my face. Today's goal was to get them to pick up a paintbrush.

"What can you expect? They are troubled for a reason."

"I guess." I said, resting my head on my hand. I was tired. Sleeping on the couch did horrible things to my back and neck and deprived me of sleep, which is strange since I slept through the night. A few minutes later, Axel and Roxas strolled through the door, Axel having slight bruises on his face. His bright green eyes landed on me.

"Morning, Namine!" He said with a cheery smile, causing a few people to stare. My face heated up at the attention. I shyly waved back, a tad unsure. Kairi stared at me; confusion and concern were on her features. Despite Roxas's obvious protests, Axel strolled right on over to my desk. "How are you doing?"

"I've been better." I said, quietly.

"I bet! Roku here has been complaining about the pain in his head all morning. I keep telling him 'just have a smoke and it will numb it' but no, he won't." Axel shook his head, and my eyes widened in surprise. "I mean, he says he will have one later, but why not now?" Axel muttered to himself.

"Really?" I asked breathlessly. Roxas rolled his eyes at me.

"Don't get excited." He said to me. I pouted. "Come on, Axel. Let's go." He pushed his redheaded friend over to the desks that they sat at. Kairi's eyes flickered at me.

"Friends with Axel now?" She asked suspiciously.

"Not really. I just—I don't dislike him as much, considering."

"Considering?"

"All he's been through." I told her, giving my attention to the other blond that was walking through the door. He had a smile on his face as he sat down near me and placed a kiss on my lips.

"Do you have to work all day today?" He asked me, looking sad.

"Yep." I said, with a smile on my face. I was excited, only because I got to be around paint.

"Well, this weekend—I'll see if I can convince your par—Jean and Sam—if you can go out with me, okay?"

"…Okay."

* * *

"I am picking you up today." Jean told me as I walked in the front door after school. "Ven was nice enough to let you stay, but I don't want that happening again, do you understand?" She asked me, more angry than worried.

"I understand, Jean." I said, placing my shoes on the mat before I went to stand near the stairs.

"What time are you finished?" She asked me, pulling out her phone to mark the time.

"Eight." She nodded her head before walking right back into the kitchen. I glided up the stairs before I pulling the key off my neck. Throwing my bag down, I went to unlock the studio door. Once I heard the click, I sighed before locking it again and placing the key in a drawer. Roxas needed to be here for this. I took off the clothes I had on and folded them, putting them into a bag before walking to the closet to change my underwear. I pulled on a pair of soffee shorts and a loose black t-shirt before putting on tennis shoes and grabbing the bag of clothes before walking out the front door to make my walk to the tram station.

A part of me felt horrible. I was excited not only to paint, but I got to see Roxas. I got to talk to Roxas. I was ashamed. I was ashamed because I should feel that way for Ventus, but for some reason, those feelings aren't coming back to me, no matter how hard I try to make them. Even though Ventus and Roxas have the same face, they are two different people. When Ventus looks at me with his happy blue eyes, all I feel now is the same thing I feel for Sora. No romantic emotion. I used to, but not anymore. Now—when Roxas looks at me with his hard, yet sometimes sad and compassionate, eyes I feel flustered and nervous. He worries me. But at the same time—I feel as if he is worried about me.

In some form.

As the Rec Center came into view, I saw Aerith was already making her way back to the car, scanning through her purse. Her brown hair was tied back into a braid with a pink ribbon at the base. She was a very beautiful woman.

"Aerith!" I shouted, running up to her. Her eyes widened in surprise as a smile was on her face.

"Namine!" She said. "I didn't think I would catch you, so I gave your clothes to Roku." I nodded and held out the bag in my hands.

"Here are _your _clothes back." I said with a giggle. She accepted them and pulled me into a tight hug.

"Thank you. And remember, you are always welcome at our home. Whenever you need someplace to be." She said. I caught a hidden message in her words, and gave her one last hug before running off into the building. Tifa was chatting with Roxas near the front desk, a bag in his hand. He had on black basket ball shorts and a white tee shirt. Both of them turned to look at me.

"Hey." I said, a little breathless from running.

"Hello!" Tifa said with a bright smile on her face. Roxas pursed his lips before walking over to me.

"I'll keep this with me. There are lockers in the gym." He said. I nodded before looking around him at Tifa, who had begun to speak.

"Namine—Roxas is going to be helping us out after the break. The two of you are going to paint the storage room. I had some earlier volunteers help me move stuff out, so you don't have to worry about that." I nodded, and looked back at Roxas.

"I'll see you in a bit, I guess." He shrugged and turned to walk down the hall while I went down the parallel one. After I slid my apron on, I sighed, getting ready to get these kids to paint.

Tifa had made some hot soup for dinner, and I even got some crackers to go with it. I learned that Roxas enjoyed slurping his soup to piss Tifa and I off, so I ended up throwing most of my crackers at him with Tifa, which amused him.

After dinner, Tifa led the two of us of us to the storage room, telling us which paints to use and showing us where the paint brushes were. She left with one final sentence.

Go crazy.

"I wonder what she means by 'go crazy'." I said to myself as I pulled out a large brush from the bin. Roxas already had his stuff and was tearing the lid off his paint.

"I know." He said like he knew what she meant, and I heard the lid to his paint can come off.

"What?" I asked, finally finding the right size brush. He didn't answer me, so I turned around, about to ask him again. Before I could even form a word, cold paint smashed onto the side of my face, and a bit on the wall. "Roxas!"

"She said to go crazy, no?" He asked, innocently painting the wall. I nodded with a smile on my face before pulling the lid off of a can of red paint. I walked over to Roxas and turned him from the wall to face me and drew a smiley face on his shirt before whipping paint across his face and onto the other wall.

"Red suits you." I giggled, walking back and drawing on the wall.

"That's it." I heard him growl and he whipped yellow paint in my direction. I screamed and jumped up, pulling several cans near me and pulled the lids off. I had blue, red, purple, and green in front of me as I dipped the paint brush and started whipping paint at him, not caring to aim. Most of my paint ended up in his hair, much to my disappointment. Either his hair or the walls. Roxas, unlike me, had perfect aim and my cheeks were covered in yellow and pink paint. My once black shirt was now decorated in specks of pink, yellow, white, and orange.

"You are cheating!" I said as I ducked some more paint before dipping my hands in a bucket of blue paint.

"How?" He laughed as he took my moment of distraction to get orange spots all in my hair. I grinned and jumped over the cans and ran to him smashing my now blue hands all over his face. "Ah!" He cried falling back a bit. I had a large smile on my face as I was laughing. Before I could react, he wrapped his arm around my waist.

"What are you doing?" I shrieked, trying to get away.

"Oh no you don't." He laughed, and the next thing I felt was cold all down my back. I tried to get away from the feeling.

"Oh my god! That's cold!" Roxas had dumped the entire can of yellow paint down my back. He let me go and I fell onto my back before I tried to crawl back towards my cans.

"No you don't." He told me before grabbing my ankle to cause me to fall onto my face. I was close enough to get a hand full of paint and whip it at his face and hair, covering him in more red paint. He then pulled me farther from the cans of paint, causing me to whine in protest.

"Roxas! This isn't fair!" He pulled me back to where he was before turning me over and crawling onto of me, his paint covered hands attacking my sides. I yelled in laughter, my hands trying to pry his from my sides, though he was much stronger than me. My eyes were brimming with tears and my smile was hurting my face as I laughed. "Stop!" I cried, kicking around.

"Say please." He demanded with a smile on his face as he attacked my sides even harder. I shrieked even louder before answering him.

"Please!" I cried through my laughs.

And then his hands stopped.

"Wow—I didn't think that you would actually—" I stopped to find him staring at me, a strange look in his eyes. I couldn't tear my eyes away from his. "Roxas…"

His lips met mine softly and as much as I should have pushed him off, my body wouldn't move. It wouldn't even move to kiss him back. It was a soft kiss, though, not requiring me to do anything. As fast as his lips met mine, they were gone, as was Roxas. He was now pressed up against the multi-colored wall, his face in his hands. After registering what just happened, I sat up from my position on the floor and looked at him.

"That was stupid, and inappropriate. I'm sorry." He said through his hands, upset. As angry or upset that I should have been, I knew that I wasn't. I couldn't be angry with him. I crawled over to him, pulling his hands off his face, forcing him to look at me.

"It's fine."

"No it isn't. Ven would have killed me right there." He said, resting his head against the wall. "Now he has a right to hate me."

"He doesn't have to know." Roxas's head shot back to look at me in an instant.

"What?"

"You said sorry—so we don't have to tell him. I'm not mad at you." I said to him, leaning over to the pink can and dipping a small brush inside of it. "Put your legs down." I told him, pushing his legs so his shirt was visible. I looked for an empty spot on his white shirt and painted something on it.

**_Namine thinks Roxas is pretty cool. _**

I smiled at him through my bangs, letting the paintbrush hit the ground. Roxas looked at me, confused for a moment before he picked up another paint brush and dipped it in the yellow paint before writing on my shirt.

**Roxas thinks Namine is a loser—but he likes her anyway.**

"Better?" I asked, standing up with a brush in my hand, looking around the room. The walls were covered in splatters of different colors, the old, gray paint now hardly visible. I walked over to a clean part and wrote my name and date on the wall, as did Roxas.

"How's it going?" Tifa said, pushing the door open. "Oh. Well—you did go crazy. I like it." She said with a smile on her face, and I smiled right back at her. "You two get home, you're covered in paint. I'll clean up." We nodded and I walked out of the room, waiting in the lobby for Roxas, since he had my bag. It took a few minutes but he returned, handing it to me.

"I'm sorry." He said once we got outside. Jean hadn't arrived yet.

"I told you it's okay." I said again, biting my lip.

"Listen…" He said, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket. He didn't light it though. "I dare you to wear that to school tomorrow." He pointed to my now paint covered shirt, signed by Roxas. I was about to protest, but then I smirked.

"If you wear yours."

"Deal."

A horn honked down from the street, and I turned my attention to Jean's car that pulled up. She honked again in irritation, so I sighed and began to walk down the steps.

"Namine?" Roxas's voice echoed behind me. I turned around, shivering from the light breeze that passed around me. It was silent, only the crickets in the background. "I—I don't regret it."

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	12. Chapter 12

Jean was pissed. The night before, she yelled my ear off about getting in her car covered in paint. She scolded me about ruining my clothes and messing up my hair. She complained about how long I would have to wash to get the paint off. But, I couldn't stop thinking about what Roxas had said to me.

_I don't regret it._

He made my stomach flip. But every time my thoughts flicked back to Ventus, and I felt guilty. I didn't know what to do.

But that was last night.

Today, I stood in front of the mirror with the shirt from last night on. Roxas's handwriting was scrawled on my shirt. Jean and Sam weren't here, so they couldn't do anything about it. I knew I was going to get in trouble with the school, but I felt as if I should wear it. I could always say my uniform didn't come. I already had that as an excuse with the school. I felt bad about making up lies and telling them to the school, but at the same I didn't care.

I pulled on a pair of blue jean shorts and allowed my hair to fall neatly on my shoulders. My normal makeup routine was done as I picked up my bag and slipped on some flip flops before walking out the door and heading to school.

My thoughts kept flicking back to last night. I had so much fun painting with Roxas, and even though the kiss caught me off guard, I didn't mind it. I wasn't bothered or upset like I knew I should have been. The way Roxas kissed me—timidly and soft—was much different than the way Ventus did. Ventus's kisses were more like he was so confident he didn't worry if I would reject him or not.

I shook the thoughts out of my head as my shoes smacked the ground outside Huntington Prep. Several students were walking around in their uniforms and I was standing there—in shorts and a tee shirt. It was now that I wished I brought my uniform to change in. But, I made a deal with Roxas. Now I just hope he follows through with it.

"No uniform?" Kairi's perky voice said from behind me. I turned around and shrugged.

"I guess not."

"Did you spill paint or something?" Kairi didn't notice Roxas's writing because it was at the bottom of my shirt, surrounded by colors of paint.

"You could say that."

"It's so multi-colored in the front, but the back is mostly yellow." I inwardly giggled at the memory when Roxas poured yellow paint all on my back.

"I know. It was a bit messy." I said as I followed her through the building. We stopped at her locker first, switching out homework and books before we went to mine and did the same thing. Teachers glared at me for not following the dress code, but I guess most of them knew I 'didn't have a uniform'. It was early, and not that many people were there, so Kairi and I had the entire homeroom to ourselves.

"Sora and I went on a date last night." Kairi said, and I could swear that I saw stars in her eyes.

"Did you?"

"Yeah, we drove over to Portland and had dinner. He sure knows how to treat a lady." She giggled. I smiled back at her.

"I'm happy for you."

"Thanks!" She told me, sitting on her desk, swinging her legs under it. I sat across from her on a desk that wasn't mine as she told me the details. As much as I wanted to pay attention, I couldn't. I kept thinking about last night. "Did you hear me?"

"Hm?"

"I asked if you and Ven have been on a date recently."

"Oh—no. Maybe this weekend." I said, trying to not sound disinterested. I felt guilty enough, and it was eating me away inside. I wasn't sure if my feelings for Ventus were gone or not.

"You have been dating a few weeks and have only been on one date?"

"I'm not a big date person." I told her, shrugging.

"I can tell."

"Can you?" I asked, with a slight laugh.

"You know—I need you ask you something. I have been wondering about it for a few days now." Kairi asked me, leaning forward.

"What?" I turned to her.

"Is there anything at all between you and Roxas?" She demanded. I slightly blushed, my memory recalling yesterday. "I knew it."

"There isn't!" I shook my head furiously, trying to get rid of the blush.

"Don't lie to me." Kairi said seriously. I gulped.

"I'm with Ventus." I said sternly.

"Yeah, but when is the last time he made your stomach flip?" She told me before turning away, leaving me to my thoughts. When _was _the last time he made my stomach flip? It was before Kairi's party.

I placed my feet on the chair so my legs weren't hanging down, and rested my elbows on my thighs, supporting my head. The door opened to the classroom, and I raised an eyebrow. Kairi was confused as well because most students didn't show up to class for another twenty minutes. Axel strolled in, looking sober and normal, besides the fact that he looked pissed. Very pissed. A scowl was present on his face and he threw his bag into his seat, glaring at the person walking in the door.

My gaze returned to the door just to see who he was so angry at. To my surprise, Roxas strolled in next. He had on a pair of blue jeans and the white shirt from yesterday; in all its paint-stained glory. I smiled softly and jumped off my desk, walking over to him.

"Hi Roxas." I said, tilting my head to the side. "You wore the shirt."

"'You wore the shirt.'" He said sarcastically. "Of course I wore the shirt." He wasn't saying it in a teasing manner. He was irritable and snappy. I scanned him up and down. His eyes were wide and bloodshot. When Axel slammed a book on his desk, I noticed he was very jumpy too. He pushed me roughly to the side so he could walk to his seat. Even when he sat down, he couldn't stop moving and I couldn't help but notice the glares Axel was sending him. I stood in place a moment, blinking to myself before turning around and walking back to Kairi, confused.

"That was rude of him." She whispered to me as I sat down in my desk, mouth slightly agape.

"No kidding." I said, gripping my hands while I watched his back.

"I wonder why Axel is angry."

"I'll ask him later." Though I couldn't stop being irritated with Roxas. I was in my own world, not even noticing that anyone came into the room until Ventus tapped my shoulder, telling me class started.

I needed answers.

* * *

Kairi and Sora had run off to lunch, bringing Ventus with them. I told them I wasn't in the mood to go out and Ventus protested, wanting to stay with me, but I told him no. I wanted some time for myself. I had gone up to the food line and bought myself some bottled water before making my way out the back door. I knew where Axel was—I just had to get the courage to walk over with a determined look to figure out what was going on.

Taking in a deep breath and a sip of my water, I walked down till I got to the back of the school and turned the corner. Music was going and the same kids were there. I didn't see Roxas in his usual spot, but Axel was there, leaned up against a wall, anger on his features.

"Axel." I said, my voice light. His eyes opened and he tried not to look angry at me.

"I don't really want to talk, kiddo." He said, his flaming red hair pushed up against the wall.

"I do. I want to talk about Roxas." I said sternly. I noticed the other people were staring at us at the mention of Roxas's name. Axel's piercing green eyes flicked over to his group before taking my arm gently and leading me back to the courtyard and sitting down with me. It was then I noticed that Axel wasn't smoking at all.

"I'm very angry with him." Axel told me, leaning back so he was lying on the ground. I pulled my knees to my chest and sat up against a tree.

"I can tell. What is going on? He was fine yesterday. We agreed to wear our shirts and stuff. All I did was walk up and start small talk." I said softly. Axel looked very stressed out.

"I don't what did it to him. Something set him over the edge and he resorted to that stuff." Axel growled to himself.

"What stuff?"

"He did some cocaine." Axel said, getting angry again. "I don't what did it! He was fine. I don't think you understand how fucking pissed I am that he did that shit. Where he got the money for it—I don't know."

"He did cocaine?" I said slowly, shocked.

"He's probably doing more to cover up whatever feelings he has that made him do this. Whatever it is, the pot wasn't helping. I am so fed up…"

"Fed up?" I couldn't even form a full sentence.

"With dealing with all this emotional stress! It's so hard to deal with her being gone." Axel said, sitting up, placing an arm on his one knee that was up.

"Her as in Xion?" I asked quietly.

He nodded. "I miss her so much, and the feelings of sadness are hard to deal with. Roxas had it worse than me, but resorting to cocaine? He was doing fine on the pot and cigs, but how could the depression get so bad that he resorted to cocaine? He won't even talk to me anymore—you know? We used to help each other and talk to each other. Now he won't utter a sentence when it comes to Xion."

I tried to block out my thoughts that tried to figure out why he did this so suddenly. "What was his relationship to Xion that made it worse than you?"

"Roxas and Xion…" Axel said, sitting next to me by the tree now. "It was probably best described as a complicated love story. Xion was practically my little sister, but Roxas—he viewed her as so much more. They spent so much time in her art studio together, taking pictures and painting. It was going to happen. Roxas developed feelings first I think. He invited her to all his games and she invited him to the art shows for the school that she was in. Most of his time was spent with her.

"They didn't really establish a relationship though. I know they talked about it. She was very shy to show emotion in public with him though. It was the day before her accident that the two of them—you know-they had sex." Axel let out a breath. "I knew for a fact that it wasn't some fling. They both cared for each other deeply, and Xion explained to me that once she was back from her trip, she was going to talk to Roxas about what they would do. She was going to write a note, but then changed her mind. She wanted to talk to him in person.

"Roxas was very happy that day, smiling as we went to Kairi's. As soon as we heard the news, Roxas's lost all emotion. He was a stone. I could figure out if he was upset or not. I was, of course. I drove us to the hospital, but by the time they got Xion there, she was already dead. That's when Roxas pretty much fell to the ground in tears. I knew right then and there that he was hurt more than me. Roxas was gone. I was still here and Roxas had pretty much gone up with her." He said.

I felt a small tear fall down my face. I wiped it away.

"It's so sad." I whispered.

"I know. It was hard to deal. Roxas too. We had to find some sort of release, and fast before one of us did something stupid, like commit suicide. Losing someone is hard."

"I know that for sure." I laughed without humor. Axel nodded, like he knew what I was talking about.

"I'm so angry with him for turning to such a drug. What could have tipped him over the edge?" My mind flicked back to yesterday. He felt so guilty and upset with himself. Was it the kiss? The small kiss that set him over the edge?

Axel stood, extending a hand to me, which I took. "Let's go. Lunch is almost over."

"Okay…"

"You alright?" He asked me as we walked back to the back of the school. In the distance I saw Kairi and the boys walking back. They were far though.

"I need to talk to Ventus, that's all." I needed to sort this entire thing out.

"You aren't going to tell him are you?"

I shook my head. "No. It's about me."

We rounded the corner, Axel walking at my heels. I heard Axel growl and I looked up to see Roxas sitting in his spot, lines of cocaine on the ground. He looked like he was debating if he should do it or not. He wasn't even trying to hide it. In anger, when I walked by I kicked the drug, spewing it across the ground.

"Hey!" He growled at me, but I kept my head high and kept walking. I wanted to cry.

I can't believe him.

* * *

"Namine—stop scowling." Kairi said to me as we were in our last period. It was before class had begun and I was sitting on Ventus's desk as he finished up homework. "What's up with you?"

"I'm fine." I said angrily.

"Liar."

I shrugged. Roxas strolled into the room, pissed off, and the teacher clapped his hands, telling us to get back to our desks. I hopped off Ventus's and walked back to mine. I sat down without looking at Roxas, sitting as still and tight as I could.

"I want you to turn around and do the discussion questions with your partners." The teacher said, and I resisted the urge to growl. Roxas and I were the only ones in our row, so I had to turn around and work with him. He didn't have a happy look to his face as well.

"Roxas…" I said, losing my anger.

"What the hell do you want?"

"Your nose…it's bleeding." I lifted a finger and pressed it to his nose, wiping the blood off. He stared, getting paranoid and stiff. Standing quickly from his desk, he grabbed some tissues and walked out of the room, not even asking for permission. Kairi looked at me from the other side of the room, eyes wide and confused. Despite that, she jerked her head in his direction, telling me to go after him. Standing from my desk, I asked the teacher if I could go to the bathroom and he was reluctant, but let me go anyway.

I still had Roxas's blood on my finger as I walked down the halls of the school. It was silent, and I couldn't figure out where Roxas went. He couldn't have gone too far. I walked by almost every bathroom and I couldn't hear a thing inside. It was only when I got to the art wing that I heard someone in the bathroom. More than someone; there were two people in the bathroom.

"Roxas! You can see what it's doing to you!" I heard Axel shout from the bathroom. Why were they all the way in the art wing? Paper towel was being furiously ripped off the roll.

"Go away, Axel." Growled Roxas.

"You won't stop until you get your fix, will you?" Axel asked desperately. I wanted to cry. How could I have thought that I had feelings for this druggie? Why on earth would I want to give up a sweet boy for this?

"Mind your own damn business!"

"Do you not see what you are doing to me? To Namine?"

"To Namine?" Roxas laughed, though there was no humor. "Why would she give two shits about me? I'm a bad guy. I'm a horrible person. Maybe now she can get it through her head that I'm not good to be around. I let down my wall and that was a stupid move. I made her think that I cared for her."

"Don't bullshit me, Roxas. You do care for her." Axel said.

"Just leave me alone, Axel." He said before his footsteps came toward me and he was out of the bathroom. My eyes locked on his for a moment before he walked away. At first, there was sadness in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced with anger.

"What pushed you over the edge, Roxas?" Axel shouted, running out the bathroom, but Roxas walked off without an explanation. I was confused, and angry. And here I thought something would happen. That he was changing.

I guess I was wrong.

* * *

When I got home, Jean and Sam were still at work. I rushed upstairs and ripped off the shirt, throwing it on the floor. I pulled on a pair of white leggings and an old red, blue, and black tie dye shirt. After staring at the paint stained shirt, and re-reading the line that Roxas wrote, I ripped the art room key out of the desk and unlocked the door, opening it and throwing the shirt inside, before I followed it.

The room was pure white inside. Everything. The walls, the easel, and the tables. All of it was white and the walls had nature paintings on them. Next to the paintings were snapshots of the same thing. Even the garden picture that I drew was painted. On the table was a snapshot of Roxas and Xion standing hand in hand, and next to that was an unfinished painting of the two of them.

I sat down in the chair, pulling my legs close to me.

"What should I do?" I whispered. How could I let myself fall for that irresponsible boy? He was into drugs and crime. I thought he was sweet underneath and that he was changing. Pictures of his smile kept replaying in my head and I tried to shake them out. Why would I trade Ventus, the sweet boy who cared about me, for Roxas? The boy who did drugs and probably didn't care about what happened to me?

"Why did he do the drug? What happened to him?" I said to myself.

Pulling out my cell phone, I dialed Ventus's number.

"Ventus?" I asked, trying not to allow myself to cry.

"Nam? What's up?"

"Can you come here?"

"I thought you weren't supposed to have guests." Ventus told me, though I heard him slipping his shoes on.

"I'm not, but I need to talk to you." I sniffed.

"Is everything alright?"

"I don't know." I told him. Hanging up the phone, I placed it on the table and looked at the picture once more before resting my head on my knees, waiting for Ventus's arrival.

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	13. Chapter 13

Ventus called back a few minutes after that, telling me he had to help his mom with something, so he wouldn't be here for another hour or so. I agreed, but the fact that I had to wait made me restless. I needed to talk about whatever was going on. So—I resorted to calling Kairi and we arranged for her to come over until Ventus got here.

I was a mess, to say the least. I was upset and angry with Roxas. Confused on my feelings with Ventus, and to top it off, I couldn't stop thinking about my parents. I wished they were there to help me through this, but they weren't. There wasn't anything I could do about that. I still had on my white leggings and tie dye shirt as I paced in front of the door, waiting for Kairi to ring the doorbell. I could tell that I was emotionally unstable at the moment. My mind was all over the place.

Kairi arrived moments after I called, telling her it was urgent. She had on a pair of jean short shorts and a blue and white plaid button down. Her hair was a bit messy, saying she rushed out of her house in a rush. I dragged her up into my room, shaking my hands. She was staring at me, waiting for me to talk, but I couldn't. I didn't know how to say how I felt. I was upset, angry, frazzled.

"Are you going to talk to me?" Kairi said after a few minutes of sitting on my bed. I looked up at her, my blond hair a mess and my eyes watery.

"Okay," I breathed, sitting on the couch in my room. "I don't know where to start."

"Let's talk about why you are angry." She said, sounding like a psychologist. I nodded, biting on my thumb and shaking my foot. I couldn't sit still.

"I'm angry at Roxas."

"Roxas?" She asked, shocked. "Why!"

"It started yesterday night. Remember my shirt?" I asked her. Kairi didn't know he kissed me, but she was about to find out.

"Yes. The paint covered one."

"Yeah. Well he and I were painting a storage room together, got into a paint fight, and he kissed me." I said, getting a bit meek on the last part.

"He did—what?" She asked, not taking in the information.

"He kissed me."

She was silent for a moment before her eyes widened.

"Is that why you are mad?" I shook my head.

"To be honest, no. I am not mad at all. I am mad at what he did after that. I don't know what caused it. Roxas felt horribly guilty after kissing me, even though I told him I was okay with it happening. He—he did some cocaine."

Kairi's hand gripped the bed sheets, her eyes held confusion. "I don't understand. That's why he was the way he was this morning?"

"Yes. I talked to Axel—and something is wrong with Roxas. He is acting so badly that even Axel disapproves and is angry." I told her, standing up from my spot and resuming my pacing. "I don't get it. I told him it was okay."

"Yeah—but your words might not have reached him. He kissed his twin brother's girlfriend." Kairi told me, standing and taking my shoulders. "Roxas does drugs. Think like him for a moment. He normally does pot, but maybe that wasn't the type of drug that would have rid him of his feelings. He had to resort to something. Think like him."

I had to stop myself from sounding like I was whining. "But cocaine! Kairi, it's insane. His nose was bleeding for God's sake. Even Axel can't get through to him. No one knows what is truly wrong."

Kairi took my shoulders and wrapped me in a tight hug. "I don't know. You are going to have to talk to him yourself. Get the answers from him. Demand them."

I nodded, pulling away and sitting back on the couch.

"Then why are you sad?" She asked me, taking a seat next to me.

"Believe it or not, I might have feelings for the druggie." I said with a humorless laugh. "And I have no idea what to do. I feel guilty for enjoying that small kiss with Roxas when I have Ventus."

"But—do you feel anything with Ventus anymore?" She asked me.

Did I? I didn't know. He didn't make me nervous or flustered like he used to. He didn't make me smile more than a friendly smile anymore. I didn't blush or dream about him. It was still the same face that did all those things for me, but an entirely different being, and I had no idea why.

"I don't think so." I said quietly.

"I thought so."

"You thought so?" Did she already know?

"I figured, in a way. After my party, your behavior towards him changed, even if you didn't notice it. I didn't want to say anything."

"What should I do, Kai?" I whined.

"What should you do?" She stated. I nodded in reply. "If you do not have feelings for Ventus, don't stay with him. Don't lead him in a false relationship. There is no point to the relationship if Roxas is the one you have feelings for. Sure, someone is going to get hurt, but the pain will be a lot worse if you don't end it." She explained.

"I don't want to hurt his feelings."

"Hun, you already are, though he just doesn't know it." Kairi said, running her fingering through my hair to comfort me. I nodded, rubbing my eyes and left my room, the auburn haired girl followed me close behind. I grabbed a container of ice cream before sitting at the counter and eating a few spoonfuls, sharing it with Kairi. "What are you going to do?"

"What else can I do? I have to break up with him, I guess." I said, tears burning my eyes. "I'm just so disappointed in myself. I'm sure my parents would be too."

"No they wouldn't!"

"Yeah. I'm dating a wonderful guy who cares about me and is so sweet. I'm about to break up with said guy for his twin brother who is a pothead and a delinquent. Tell me that doesn't sound bad." I said, shoving more ice cream in my mouth.

"It does." I sighed. "But! Your parents wouldn't be disappointed. I'm not." Kairi said, filling her mouth with ice cream as well.

"You're not?"

"No! Roxas cares about you as well. Roxas might not be involved in good things, but that doesn't mean he isn't good for you. When he isn't being a complete dick, he makes you happy. I can see it." Kairi said with a smile.

"You can?"

"Yeah."

I nodded, dwelling on what she said. If he cared about me why would he do these things when he knew that I hated them? Did he care so much that he didn't want me in his life? How did that make sense at all?

"Is that the only reason you are sad?" Kairi asked me as I placed the tub of ice cream in the freezer.

"No."

"What else is it then?"

I sighed, taking a seat across from her again. "I've been having more clear dreams about my parents. I think I may know the cause of their death now."

Kairi gasped a first before leaning in. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I nodded before she waited for me to continue. "I see these dreams from a child's perspective. My parents in the front seat of the car, me in the middle of the back. It was happy. They were happy. Then I see pain. It was pain that crossed their faces and the car spun. I saw another car as I screamed and then black. Just black."

"You think they were killed in a car accident?"

"I'm almost sure of it."

"What were your parent's names? If you want, I can do some research."

I placed a hand in my hair and leaned on my elbow. I didn't know if I should tell her or not. Did I really want to know something if Kairi does find out? And did I want her to know about it? It was all very confusing, but Kairi was my best friend and I knew I could trust her with anything.

"Lenne and Shuyin Hans." I said as she placed the names into her phone. She smiled softly at me as she did so.

"I promise I'll find out whatever I can that is useful. Having important parents comes in handy sometimes." She said to me.

I laughed. "I think it's the dazzling smile."

"Why thank you." I chuckled slightly before the front door rang and both of our heads shot up. I looked back into Kairi's bright blue eyes as she wrapped me in a very tight hug before I walked her to the front door.

"I'm scared." I told her. She smiled.

"It will be okay." She whispered before opening the door. We both came face to face with Ventus, who held a happy expression. He still had on his school uniform.

"Hey ladies." He said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"I'll see you later, Ven." Kairi flashed a smile before walking off down the street towards Sora's house. Ventus walked in, taking off his shoes and standing near the door, waiting for me to tell him where to go. I sighed, leading him back into the kitchen before I started my horrible pacing habit.

"Are you alright?"

I shook my head. "I'm angry with myself, with my head, and with your brother."

"What?"

"I can't explain everything, I'm not even too sure of all of it at the moment." I said, resting my face in my hands. I heard Ventus get up and he wrapped me in a hug, pulling me closer. His closeness and how he tried to be intimate with me is what set me on edge. Tears flowed out my eyes.

"Nam? What's wrong" Ventus said, pulling away, but keeping his hands on my shoulders. His blue eyes held confusion while mine poured tears.

"I'm just so upset and angry."

"What happened? What did Roxas do?" Ventus said, getting defensive.

"Nothing. He didn't do anything to me to cause me to get upset." I said. It wasn't a full lie. But I had to stop lying to myself and to him. It had to stop right now.

"Namine?" Ventus cooed softly, getting closer to me. I shook my head and pulled away, leaning my back against the counter.

"I—"

I was almost in tears by this point, and by the look on Ventus's face, I think he knew what I was going to say.

"I want to break up."

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	14. Chapter 14

"What?" Ventus asked me. His expression wasn't heartbroken as much as it was confused. I gripped the edge of my shirt and looked back up to him with watery eyes.

"I want to break up." I said again. It killed me again to say it. I just looked at him; this cute, nice guy who cared for me and I was throwing him away. But—I didn't feel that way about him anymore.

"Why?" He asked me. Again—his expression didn't change.

Taking a deep breath, I wiped a stray tear from my face. "I don't feel the same way anymore." I couldn't form long sentences otherwise my voice would shake and waver.

Ventus ran a hand through his hair before turning his bright blue eyes back to me. "I don't understand. Everything was going well. Why are you doing this?" Looking at him made my heart break more than it already was. He was perfect, and here I was, so lucky to have him, and I'm ending it.

"You think it was. It wasn't. My feelings just stopped. I tried to bring them back because you are an amazing guy, but I can't. I just can't. I cannot force myself to have feelings when I don't. I don't want to lead you in a lie of a relationship anymore." I said, shaking a bit. Ventus walked around the counter and stood near me, but didn't touch me.

"I really like you."

I glanced up to look into his eyes were now watering. I had to take another breath to stop myself from sobbing as well. "I know. You deserve better than someone like me. A girl who can truly make you happy. That's not me." I lifted my arms and put my arms around his neck, pulling him closer. "I'm sorry."

His arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me even closer. His head rested atop of mine and I heard him sigh. He was tense. He was such a sweet boy, and I couldn't believe that this was happening.

_"Cool, huh?" I jumped up and looked directly into sea blue eyes. The boy's uniform was un-tucked and messy, as was his hair._

_"Uh—yeah." I replied. He was unbelievably cute._

_"You go to Huntington Prep too?" I nodded meekly._

_"I just transferred."_

_"That explains it." I titled my head at the statement._

_"Explains what?" He laughed._

_"Well—if you were a usual student here, you would have gotten me confused with my brother, and then wouldn't have talked to me or something. But, never mind that. I'm Ventus. Ventus Hewes." He held out a hand._

_"Ah—I'm Namine Manzano." He shook my hand. "What did you mean by 'confusing you with your brother'?" I had to ask. I wanted to make sure I actually knew some information on people before I made friends with someone._

_"Oh, I have a twin brother, Roxas. Most people confuse me with him." He didn't mention anything about the not talking to him part so I decided to leave it alone. He didn't mention it for a reason._

I bit on my bottom lip as I recalled the memory. He drew me in back then. It wasn't that long ago, though. When his smile still ached my heart.

_"Good morning!" I looked up to see a very happy Ventus standing in front of my desk. Raising an eyebrow, I replied to him._

_"Morning. What is with the happy attitude?" I asked him._

_"Ven is a morning person in general." Kairi grumbled. He put his hands on my desk before he spoke again._

_"I wanted to ask you something." Being a very shy and quiet girl, there was only a few scenarios running through my brain at the moment. He was going to ask me for either something along the lines of homework, or ask me to go somewhere. Usually, for someone like me, it was the former._

_"Okay, what?"_

_"You don't know much about the city, right? How about I show you around the islands tonight?" He proposed._

_"Oh I don't—"I started to say, but Kairi shot up and cut me off._

_"She would love to!" She answered for me._

_"Great! I'll meet you after school then." He smiled before walking off to talk to his other friends across the room._

_"Kairi! I am busy!" I whisper shouted at her. I was pretty irritated that she would answer a question like that for me._

_"Doing?" I got quiet and didn't reply. "Exactly. Get out and meet some boys. Ven is a particularly fine one if I do say so myself."_

I gripped tighter onto him, wishing that my feelings for Roxas would change. I knew they couldn't.

_"Stand up." He laughed, moving his hand in an upward motion._

_Although I was confused, I complied. "What are we doing?"_

_"Stand here." He placed his hands on my shoulders and moved me into place. I was directly behind him. He walked around so he was facing me. He had a hand on his chin and was thinking._

_"What?"_

_He got an idea and pulled off his tie from around his neck and grinned at me. Walking behind me, he took his tie and tied it around my eyes, so I couldn't see._

_"What are you doing, Ventus?" I stuttered, and I could feel my face heating up._

_"You'll see." He laughed at me, and I kept shifting my weight from foot to foot, nervous on what he was doing. "Stay still!" I complied and stopped moving, but it didn't stop the butterflies._

_He got quiet again and I could hear him pacing. I resisted the urge to peek and figure out what he was doing in my house while I was blindfolded no less. Then his shuffling stopped. Before I knew it, his lips were barely, just barely touching mine. Of course, I reacted and jumped back, taking his tie off my eyes._

_I was blushing like mad and I stared at him. I had only known Ventus a week!_

_"That was out of line, I think." Ventus joked, rubbing his hair, blushing. "I'm sorry."_

_"Don't be sorry." I stuttered. "It was just unexpected." I had a feeling Ventus had a crush on me, but I thought that was me being self centered._

_"I know—you're probably thinking that you've only known me a week and such, but I'd like for you to give me a chance. Even if it is just some petty date or something." He shrugged. I stood there for a moment, staring at the tie in my hand. I walked over to him and took his hand, placing the tie in it._

_"I guess I could give you a chance." I grinned. Ventus looked up at me and grinned brightly._

"I'm sorry things aren't working out." Ventus muttered into my hair, his voice making tears fall from my eyes onto his clothes.

"I am too."

_"Right, and I have been trying to get those two together, since I think Kairi likes him too. Relationships—so complicated." He laughed._

_"They tend to be that way; Awkward and complicated." I agreed, sipping my drink._

_"We aren't awkward and complicated." Ventus said, making my stomach flutter._

_"But we aren't in a relationship." I clarified. I knew, and it was obvious, that he wanted more than a friendship. If him trying to kiss me before didn't prove anything, then I don't know what would. I can't lie and say I wouldn't be interested in dating Ventus, because hey—dating is practically just for getting to know a person._

_"We could be." He proposed._

_"Why, Ventus? Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?" I said with a mock gasp, placing a hand to my chest._

_"I think I am. I mean, it wouldn't really change our relationship. We would just—I don't know—have more benefits than a friendship."_

_I stared at him, considering it. I wasn't the most experienced with relationships, so I didn't know if knowing a person for a short amount of time, and then dating them was normal. But, as I stated before, the point of relationships (I think) is to get to know a person better._

_"Sure, why not." I laughed, looking at his surprised face._

_"You serious? You're saying yes?" I stood from my chair and placed my blazer back on while smiling at his dumbstruck face._

_"I am. Now—pick your jaw up off the table before I change my mind." _

I knew I wouldn't get anything like this again, but the memories I had were fun. He was a great guy, and he would find someone soon.

"I'll miss you." He whispered.

"I'll miss you too."

_"You think you are all big and tough, don't you?"_

_"I don't see anything wrong with it. Why are you trying to pry yourself into my problems?"_

_"I practically saved your life and you are calling me a jerk?"_

_"Cigs are fine. I meant I didn't want to smoke my pot."_

_"Well—according to what Ven told me, I was to make sure you were properly fed and hydrated. Normally, I wouldn't give a damn, no offense. But, since you getting sicker is probably partially my fault, I felt bad."_

_"Namine, you can't help. It's really nothing you should concern yourself with. You should just go back to not caring."_

_"Cute. Nice moves, by the way. I never knew you could dance like that."_

_"So you are ignoring your own pain? Namine—don't do what I do. Don't hide how sad you are just because you don't want to talk about it. I'm hurting myself, but I don't want to see you hurt. Talk to people about it. I lost someone too, and I know it hurts. I don't want to see you in the same position that I got myself into."_

_"I think you should have it now. I—I trust it to you."_

_"I—I don't regret it."_

Why do I keep thinking of Roxas? He was a druggie, but at the same time I couldn't stop my obvious feelings for him. I let go of Ventus and looked at him with a sad smile on my face. Ventus shoved his hands into his pocket before looking up at me through his bangs.

"I knew this was coming, I think." Ventus said after a few moments of silence. I looked up at him, confused.

"What?" I asked him quietly.

"My brother is a lucky guy." He said softy. I blushed, involuntarily, and widened my eyes.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't think I didn't notice, Nam." Ventus said. "Make him happy." The taller blond leaned in and kissed me on the forehead before turning and making his way out of my house, leaving me standing there. I stood there for a few moments before running a pale hand through my hair and walking over to the couch, collapsing on it and throwing an arm over my eyes.

* * *

"Hello?" I groaned into the cell phone that was ringing in my pocket a few moments ago.

"Namine!" A loud voice rang into my ear.

"Ow—Sora? Please don't yell."

"Sorry. Anyway—are you busy?" The brunette asked me through the phone. I glanced at the clock, and it wasn't even dinner time.

"No. Why?"

"Let's go for ice cream. I want to talk to you." He told me, and I heard rustling on the other side of the phone.

"About?"

"Stuff." He laughed. "Just get dressed and meet me outside your house."

I sighed, standing. "I hate to break it to you, but I just broke up with Ventus and I'm not too happy."

"I know. He told me. That's one of the reasons I want to talk to you." He told me. "I'll be there soon." And he hung up, not waiting for me to reply. I ran upstairs and pulled on a pair of shorts and a pink hoodie since I couldn't go outside in what I was wearing. I glanced into the art studio before sighing and locking the door and making my way outside. By the time I got my shoes on and opened the door, the brunette was already in my driveway. I walked over and sat in the car, greeting him with a small smile.

"Hey there." He told me, backing up. He had on black jeans, a black shirt, and a red plaid button up. His hair was wild as usual.

"Hi Sora." I told him, placing my hands in my lap.

"We are going to my favorite ice cream parlor. I take Kairi there all the time."

"Weren't you with her?" I asked, remembering seeing Kairi going in that direction.

He nodded, confirming my thoughts. "Yeah, but after she told me what happened, and when Ven told me as well, I thought I should take you out and talk to you. Besides, ice cream always makes me feel better." He laughed.

We were in the busy district of the middle island and we had to find a public parking place since the streets were filled up with cars. Sora took me into an ice cream place on the corner of the street we were on. I didn't bother looking at the name. He ordered us some sea salt ice cream after we sat down to talk.

"So—what happened?" He asked me, linking his fingers together.

I tucked my hair behind my ear. "I didn't have the same feelings anymore."

"Why?"

"Reasons…" I muttered, pushing my hands into my pockets and leaning back in the seat.

"Namine…" Sora said in a warning tone. I looked at him through my messy bangs and bit my lip. "Tell me what's wrong and why you really dumped my cousin."

Sighing, I spoke. "Roxas. I fell for Roxas."

"Roxas?" I nodded. "I see. I guess that was sort of obvious." He said, placing his head in his hand.

"Obvious?"

"I mean, I don't know. It looked like there was something there." He sighed and took the ice cream, handing me some when it got to the table. "Now that you aren't with Ven, are you going to pursue Roxas?"

"I don't know. I'm angry with him at the moment."

"Why?"

"Last night he kissed me. I didn't make a big deal about it, but apparently he felt guilty or something and did some cocaine. Even Axel said something is really wrong, because even he doesn't do cocaine." I said, placing a small amount of the blue ice cream in my mouth.

"He did some cocaine?" I nodded. "Man—that's bad."

"Yeah. So Kairi told me it would be best to confront him about it. I'm just so ashamed that I fell for someone that does drugs when I had a perfectly good guy. Roxas is a good guy—_underneath._ That's the Roxas I fell for—the one he didn't show anyone." I told Sora. He shoved some more ice cream in his mouth before continuing.

"I would talk to him too. I think you are the only one who will get through to him. He will listen to you."

"Yeah right." I muttered.

"I think he will. I think he has feelings for you too, and not just because you told me he kissed you."

"What makes you say that?" I asked him.

"Back before all this, I've seen Roxas look lovingly at one girl before. And he lost that after she died and I never saw it in his eyes again. Recently, I've been seeing it when he looks at you." Sora told me, smiling a toothy smile.

"Really?"

He nodded. "Yup. So—I'm sure if you really dig deep, he will listen to you."

I finished the bowl of ice cream before Sora, who had another three bowls. We then stood and walked outside the parlor, making our way back to the car.

"Thanks for making me come out. It brought up my mood tenfold." I said to him. He slung an arm around my shoulder, pulling me close to his side.

"That's why I'm here, young one."

"Young one?" I asked him, peering up at his face.

"I'm sure you are younger than me." I shook my head with a smile. "You know, Ven and Roxas's birthday is next month."

"Is it? I didn't know."

"You dated Ven, and like Roxas, yet you don't know their birthdays?" I shook my head. "Wow. Anyway, Kai and I want to throw a surprise birthday for them. Aerith always has a small thing for them at the house, and their dad doesn't really do much. So Kai and I had this idea to just throw a party with all of our friends."

"That's not a bad idea." I agreed. "I have to buy a present now."

We reached the car and Sora drove me back to my house. The ride was in silence and my thoughts kept me occupied. I had to figure out when and how I would confront Roxas about this cocaine incident. I didn't know where he would be and what to say to him. If he really did care like Sora said, then wouldn't he have not done the drugs in the first place? There must be something deeper.

"I hate those guys." Sora muttered as we were stopped at a stop light. I glanced where he was looking outside my side window into an alley. That blond boy that hit Roxas was among those standing in the alley. There were lighting trash cans on fire and hanging on fire escapes.

"I do too."

"You know them?"

"That guy with the hat hit Roxas the other day." I said, recalling the memory and the blood.

"That's Seifer, the leader of that gang. They are like a rival gang to the one that Roxas hangs around with. The two of them go at it like all the time in Northwood Heights. It's very dangerous to go around there at night because of all the fighting. I don't know what caused it. I don't think Roxas does either—I just know he hates Seifer with a passion because of the shit he starts with him all the time about his depression and losing Xion." Sora told me. I nodded and glared at Seifer through the window before the light turned green and we drove back to my house.

I stepped out my car and walked over to Sora, who stood by his door. I pulled him into a friendly hug.

"Thanks for today."

He shrugged, smiling. "Everyone needs someone sometimes. That's what I'm here for."

"Kairi's a lucky girl." I shoved his shoulder playfully as he blushed. "I'll see you Monday."

He waved as I walked up to the front door.

Time to figure out what I was going to do.

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	15. Chapter 15

I swung my legs off the side of my bed Saturday morning. I was tired. That wasn't a lie. I laid up all night last night thinking about everything that happened yesterday. Sora and I had a talk after I broke up with Ventus after I learned I had feelings for Roxas who did some cocaine. That about sums up the entire day. With Kairi thrown somewhere in the middle.

Running a hand through my hair, I sighed. Why was everything so complicated? Everything up to this point was easy and simple compared to what I was going to have to do a few hours from now. Breaking up with Ventus seemed simple compared to this! I didn't know where to start looking for him first of all. And second—what if he doesn't listen to me?

"Just believe in yourself, Namine." I said, nodding my head in determination. I strolled into the bathroom so I could shower and wash my hair before I was to walk out and get dressed. As I was showering and scrubbing the grease out of my hair, my phone rang on the sink. "Great."

I wiped my hands on a towel before leaning out. "Hello?"

"Namine?" My eyes widened.

"Axel?" I asked into the phone, shocked. "Who gave you my number?"

"I stole it out of Roxas's phone." He said into the phone. "I just wanted to give you some ideas on where he would be since you said you were going to talk to him."

"Hold on." I told him before turning off the shower and wrapping a white, cotton towel around me. "Go on."

"You can check around the downtown area of Northwood, or maybe some of the members' houses." I gulped.

"Can you…come with me?" I asked in a tiny voice. "It's a bit scary thinking about doing this alone."

Axel sighed into the receiver before replying. "I guess. I'll be there in an hour, alright?"

"Sure thing."

"Make yourself pretty." He laughed before hanging up. I rolled my eyes before stepping out of the bathroom to go search in my closet for an outfit to wear for the day. I pulled on a red floral print dress with a black blazer over my body. Allowing my hair to go it natural way, I spent some time in the bathroom doing some simple makeup before walking back into the art studio and picking up the discarded shirt.

Smoothing it out, I spoke aloud, "I'm sorry. I'm going to fix things now." I ran my hands over the paint marks before standing and laying the shirt on my bed, closing the door behind me.

The doorbell rang not that much later and I opened the door to see Axel standing there in his tall glory. I never noticed how much taller he was than me.

"Whoa…" I said, looking up at him.

"You're short." He sniggered. "Let's go."

I slipped on my shoes at the side of the door before walking outside to Axel's car. I had been in it before, but this time I got to sit in the front seat. When I looked into the back seat, all I could recall was that memory from back before. The blood.

"Stop having flashbacks." Axel said to me, looking at me with concern. I shook my head, my blond hair shaking around my shoulders.

"It's hard not to, you know?" I told him, shrugging back into the seat.

"Everything is just going to work out in the end. I'm sure Roxas wouldn't want you dwelling on what happened that night." Axel told me, making a left down Redwidth Street.

"I know that, but I'm not used to things like that. Any type of accident, be it injury or something else, freaks me out. I don't want to lose any more people." I told him.

"Well—you won't. Roxas is on the brink of disappearing, but we will bring him back. I promise." Axel smiled at me, getting onto the bridge that linked the islands.

"I hope so." I turned my view out the window and watched the water speed by below us. I had so many things I had to say to Roxas. But I had to make sure I said them in the right way. I didn't want to yell at him for being so stupid, but at the same time, I knew that might be the only way to get through to him. Why did he have to screw up and so something so stupid? I knew he was going through a tough time, but what made him go over the edge?

"You okay, Namine?" Axel asked me. I had zoned out for a minute or two and I noticed we were in Northwood Heights.

"Yeah—I'll be alright." I told him with a forced smile that he saw right through. "Do you know where to look?"

"Yeah." Axel turned down a residential street. "He's in our friend's Xigbar's basement."

I sighed, placing my hands in my lap. "Of course."

"Hey," Axel put his hand on my shoulder, keeping his eyes on the road. "It'll all work out."

"I just—do not understand him, and I feel like I'm shut out." I lowered my head.

"You're not the only one."

He drove around the area, turning down different streets until we finally pulled up at an old house. The lawn was unkempt and the front porch was a mess; lawn chairs all over the place. There were many cars in front of it, and I recognized Roxas's motorcycle in the driveway. I got out the car, putting my hand to my chest. My heart was beating hard against my chest and I bit my lip. Axel placed an arm around my shoulder and I looked at him.

"You want to help him, right?" His expression made something surge through me. Confidence, maybe? I made a face of determination as I followed him up the steps of the house and in through the front door. There was music coming from first floor of the house but no one was upstairs. There were empty boxes of take out and bottles of beer around the floor and on the tables. The TV was on pause and shoes and jackets were lying about.

"This way." Axel said, walking to the basement door. Voices were heard downstairs, some serious and some laughing. The smell of smoke hit me as soon as the door opened, but I held the same determined expression as Axel looked back at me. He went down the stairs and there was low light. But it was bright enough that I could still see faces. Axel stopped at the bottom step and I heard people greet him with happy tones. He didn't say anything back. I slowly descended the stairs behind him, my heart beating loudly in my ears as I held my hand to my chest. My shoes echoed loudly on the wooden stairs.

_"Go get that." Ventus scolded Roxas. I turned around to see Roxas gone._

_"Where did Roxas go? I want Roxas! ROXAS!" I screamed, turning around a few times._

_"I got it!" Roxas said, stumbling back to us from the middle of the street. _

_"What do you care?" The shouting shook me up more and I jumped up from my spot, causing Xaldin to stare at me. My bottom lip was shaking and I felt like a baby. I walked over to Roxas and wrapped my arms around his neck in a death grip, taking deep breaths to calm myself. I felt his arms snake around my waist._

_"So you call me a prude? Roxas—I told you to stop because it is really bad for you." By this time, I had turned completely around in my chair. "You should really stop smoking pot. It's harmful and disgusting. Cigarettes too."_

_"And what? Lose all my friends and be the depressed kid? I don't know what I'd do to myself if I didn't have this as a release. It helps, Namine. Would you rather me turn into someone who considered suicide or something?"_

_"For one, no I wouldn't. I don't even want to hear you say that again. And two—" I took a breath. "You wouldn't be depressed and have no friends. Those people can't be real friends, Roxas. You have me."_

_"You can't even stand to be around me." He said quietly. I shook my head._

_"That isn't true. I can't stand to be around you when you are high or drunk or anything. It scares me." I told him. "All I want to do is help."_

_"Did I tell you that you shouldn't even bother?"_

_"Roxas, have you pictured what this could do to you in the long run?"_

_He got silent._

_"I know you think it helps you forget and makes you happy. Maybe it does. But, did you ever stop to think that there are better ways to make yourself feel better? I lost both my parents, and I don't even know how, but you don't see me going around and doing drugs."_

_"No you just torture yourself to tears." He said back to me._

_"My point is—there are people you can see, and friends you can make that aren't into that stuff." I said softly, in my high soprano voice._

_"I have a friend. We are dealing with this together."_

_"Who? Axel? You won't help yourself when he does the same stuff."_

_Roxas took my hand, which startled me. "Just—don't bother Namine. I know you feel you need to help me, and I really do appreciate it, but I have been dealing with it on my own before you came here." He lifted his hand and tucked a strand of blond hair behind my ear. "Stop worrying about me. I'm not about to go and die. I'm fine. I can deal with it."_

_I bit my lip to stop myself from blushing. "Okay."_

I don't know why I didn't see it before. This probably could have been prevented if I realized my feelings for him sooner. All the signs were there, I just refused to see some of them. I came to the bottom step and looked around the basement. The talking ceased and the whispers started; most of them angry whispers. I held my expression and looked around the basement, my hands in fists. I eventually saw Roxas. He had a joint in his fingers and a bag next to him. His eyes were wide on me, his mouth slightly open. He had on skinny jeans and two hoodies, one gray and the other blue. I imagined that he was hot since it was baking down there; and I was wearing a dress.

I held my head up high as I walked forward and stopped when I got to his outstretched feet. His looked up at me, not saying anything. I ripped the joint from his fingers, throwing it to the floor and stepping on it. But this time, he didn't say anything to me. He just watched me do it. I took the bags of drugs that he had next to him and opened them, pouring them onto the floor, crushing it beneath my feet. I heard shouts of protests but none of them were from Roxas. I stood between his outstretched, open legs as I glared at the substances that were now on the floor. It was a mixture of his pot and the cocaine.

I fell to my knees. It hurt since my knees were bare. I bit my lip to stop the tears from falling. My hands reached out and gripped his shirt. He was tense.

"Please—stop." I said in a whisper.

He was still for a moment before he forced me away and stood, pulling me up with him. He looked around angrily at the others in the room and they stopped talking. He then took my hand and pulled me up the stairs, past Axel whose head was down to the floor. He shut the door behind him and led me out the front door. We stood in front of each other.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, staring at the grass below our feet.

"I want an explanation!" I said, not caring to get upset now.

"About what?" He scoffed.

"The cocaine! I could barely stand the pot, Roxas. But this—you—why? What made you do this? Even Axel is worried about you!" I shouted at him, my nails digging into my skin as I made a fist. He stared at the ground, his eyes squeezed shut.

"You wouldn't understand."

I sniffed. "Open your eyes, Roxas. Open them and look into mine." He did so. "Tell me I don't understand. You aren't the only one suffering here!"

"And here I thought that you would go away. Why do you keep coming back?" He shouted at me, anger taking place in his face.

"Because I love you!" I shouted at him, squeezing my eyes shut.

"What?" He said softly and quietly.

"I love you." I said, getting upset. "So please—stop. Go ahead, smoke cigarettes, I don't care! Just stop the pot. Stop the cocaine." It was mostly in a whisper.

"It makes me feel better." He replied at the same volume.

"Silly." I said to him, a small smile crossed my features as my eyes brimmed with tears. "Love is like cocaine. But it lasts a lot longer." His eyes widened as he looked at me. "Please stop before you can't." I closed my eyes and crossed my arms, trying to stop myself from crying.

"I—"

"Tell me why you did it, Roxas?" I asked him, looking back up at him.

"I'm scared."

"Of what?" I took a step closer to him.

"You."

"Me?"

He nodded, shoving his hands into his hoodie pockets. "You are so much like her. I—I didn't want to fall for you for the wrong reasons. I felt horrible, thinking I kissed you because you are like her. You remind me of her so much, that you scare me. And I don't want to hurt you."

I shook my head. "You said it yourself, that I am not like her. You told me that I am not Xion. I am Namine. You said that I had an edge that she never had."

His blue eyes looked shocked.

"Did you forget?"

"I'm stupid. Why would you want to be with me? You have my brother, don't you?"

"I don't know why I want to be with you. I broke your brother's heart. He deserves better than me. You are the one I want to be with and I have no idea why." He looked at me from underneath his bangs and I walked closer to him, sliding my arms up and around his neck. "Just—stop."

He was tense for a few moments before he relaxed and slid his arms around my waist, pulling me into his tightly. "I'm not good enough for you."

"Yes you are. Otherwise I wouldn't try, now would I?" I said into his chest.

"I'll try."

"Hm?" I replied, my eyes closed against his chest, and I was finding myself very sleepy.

"I'll try and stop, Namine. I'll try." Though as he said that, I could feel him get upset and his grip tightened. I nodded against him.

I pulled away, smiling and wiping a stray tear from my eye. I giggled and Roxas's expression turned confused as he titled his head, waiting for me to elaborate on my laughing. I shook my head and stood on my tip toes, kissing him on the lips slightly.

"There is no turning back now. We can't let fear stop us." I said to him, determination returning to my face. "Even if we are apart, we will never be alone. Don't ever forget that."

"Is everything okay now?" Axel's voice rang from the porch. Roxas and I both turned our blue eyes to him. Roxas shoved his left hand into his pocket and leaned back, turning his body to him.

"It's going to be." He told him. I nodded, clasping my hands behind my back. I rolled back and forth on my heels like a child. Axel's grinned and walked to us.

"I'm glad." And then he hit Roxas over the head before locking him in a headlock. "I was so worried about you! Opening up to her and not me! You jackass!" He laughed and the two of them started to wrestle on the front lawn, Axel starting to lose to Roxas's strength.

"I'm sorry!" Roxas grunted. I laughed at the two before Roxas eventually threw Axel off of him and stood, straightening his clothes. Axel laughed and flung and arm around his shoulder.

"I guess I'll drive the little lady home." Axel said, but Roxas stopped him.

"No, that's okay. I'll do it." Roxas's eyes went back to mine and I smiled.

"Alright. Behave." Axel said.

"I should say the same about you!" I called after him as he walked up the porch steps. I followed Roxas to his motorcycle and put on the helmet he handed me before sitting behind him and wrapping my arms around his waist as we began to drive off.

* * *

"No. I think it's blue." I said. Roxas and I were standing in the art studio. It was hard for him, and I could tell, but he was doing a good job at hiding it. I wouldn't bring it up if he didn't want me to.

"It's pretty purple." He told me, leaning against the wall.

"You need your eyes checked. It's obviously blue. I would know. I painted it."

He laughed, twirling an unlit cigarette in his fingers. "I just think it looks more purple than blue. It's debatable."

"Oh whatever." I said, adding the finishing touches on the artwork. It was the flower garden in front of the school. I had finally gotten the urge to paint it instead of sketch it. Roxas stuck his tongue out at me. "Put that back in your mouth."

"Or what?" He teased. I put the brush down and walked over to him.

"Or—" I started with a smirk on my face before I heard the front door open and shut, Jean and Sam calling my name. "Uh oh." I grabbed Roxas's hand and pushed him out onto the balcony before shutting the door, despite his protests. My bedroom door opened and I faced Jean who was leaning into the door.

"What are you doing?"

"Painting."

"You got the room open?" She walked in and leaned into the studio.

"Yeah. A friend knew someone who lived here and had a spare key." I told her, hoping she didn't step inside. Behind the door was one of Roxas's hoodies.

"I see. Anyway, dinner will be ready in an hour—so shower and be downstairs." She commanded before walking out, shutting the door behind her. I locked the door and walked over to the balcony door, opening it to see Roxas sitting on the edge.

"I take it that it's my time to go?" He said, not turning around. He was looking up into the stars just like I had the first night I moved here.

"Yeah. But you can come back later if you want." I said, standing behind him, leaning against his back, looking up with him.

"Mmm—okay." He said. There were a few moments of silence before he spoke again. "You think she's up there?"

"Xion?" He nodded. "Yeah. I do. I mean, I think my parents are up there, so she must be too right?"

"I guess." It was silent for a moment. "Say, Namine. Do you—know how your parents died?"

I sighed. "I think it was a car accident. I'm not too sure. I'm afraid to ask about it." He didn't say anymore before he turned around, hoping off the ledge, causing me to step back. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders, pulling me in a hug before resting his head on mine.

"I'll see you later then?"

"I guess." He ran his thumb over my cheek before climbing down the side of my balcony and walking around to where we put his bike.

I leaned back against the glass door, looking up into the sky.

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	16. Chapter 16

I stood in front of the class, rolling my eyes at the two next to me. In our first period class, we were ordered to do a debate on something or other. I wasn't paying attention, not that it mattered. I wasn't able to participate. Why? Because our debate turned into a battle of the sexes. Between whom? Kairi and Sora. Sure, the two are dating, but they are currently screaming at each other.

I leaned back to see around Sora to find Ventus making an exhausted face at me. It wasn't as awkward between us as I first thought it was. I rolled my eyes and leaned my head in my hands, propping them up on the podium. Kairi was on my side, yelling at her boyfriend while Sora was taking the hits, coming back with something whenever Kairi stops talking.

Axel was in the back of the class, laughing at the display. The teacher decided to stop trying to keep them on topic, since it was funny. I wanted to sit down though. I needed a nap. I had a few sleepless nights the past couple of days and I had been having nightmares about my parents. Ventus tried to get a few words in, but Kairi shut him up and kept on talking on her view point on something. I didn't really care to listen to her. She was probably right though.

"That's stupid! You do understand that you make no sense?" Sora yelled at the auburn. Kairi rolled her eyes and slammed her hand on the podium.

"I do! Women should not be treated like dolls! That's why we have rights now. Hello? The nineteenth amendment?" At least she was working in some school topic.

"Oh shut up! I didn't say they were dolls! All I'm saying is that most women should be doing the house work while the men go to work!" He yelled back.

"Oh god…" I sighed, leaning against the board behind me. Ventus had been doing the same. He walked over and stood next to me, crossing his arms.

"They won't stop till the bell rings." He said. I nodded.

"I'm getting tired." I yawned and watched the floor while listening to the two argue in front of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the room door open to show the other blond that I was eager to see. His uniform was messy and his backpack was slung lazily over his shoulder, about to fall off. His bright blue eyes were stunned at the sight of Kairi and Sora's debate.

"Mr. Hewes, nice of you to join us." Our teacher said, thankful for the nice distraction. Roxas's eyes traveled over to the teacher.

"Yeah—maybe I should just leave. I'm pretty sure I don't want to listen to this." The class giggled at the comment.

"Sit down." He instructed and Roxas held up his hands in defense as he walked over to his seat, slouching in it. My eyes met with his and he smiled as I smiled at him. Ventus chuckled and turned I turned my confused eyes to him.

"What?" I whispered, since Kairi and Sora took over class again.

"Nothing. I just haven't seen Roxas this happy in a while." He leaned in, whispering into my ear.

I blushed. "Yeah, I guess."

Sora and Kairi's debate carried on and by this point I had sat down along with Ventus. The teacher even started giving us notes as the war raged on between the two. They had no idea that the bell even rang to let us go to another class. I stood and waited for the twins.

"I hate school, officially." Ventus said, stepping behind his brother.

"I've always hated it." Roxas said, slipping his hand in mine. Ventus, believe it or not, was the only one comfortable with the relationship. Actually, he was the only of one our friends that knew. Kairi and Sora had yet to know.

"It's alright." I added. The two looked at me. "What?"

"Nothing." The two said in unison.

"That's creepy." Ventus rolled his eyes as Roxas leaned down and lightly pressed his lips to mine before walking down the hall to his next class, leaving me alone with Ventus.

"No—that's creepy." Ventus smirked.

* * *

"But this is really dumb." I complained as I tried to understand the equations in my science class. I had my head in my hand as I pouted. Ventus rolled his eyes at me and grabbed my paper.

"It's just like that." He said, finishing my questions on the sheet.

"Yeah—I have no idea how you did that. Want to do the rest?" I asked with a smile on my face.

Ventus shook his head. "How are you gonna pass the test?" He asked, leaning back in his chair.

"I have no idea." I slammed my head on the table, causing a few people to look. I sighed and pulled my papers under my arm, looking at the next question. I heard some footsteps reaching us and I didn't look up, too upset with myself and not being able to do the questions.

"What are you two doing in here?" Ventus piped up.

"Stuff." I heard Kairi's cheery voice say. I looked up to see Sora and Kairi sitting at the lab table in front of us.

"Stuff?" I asked.

"Do your work." Ventus said and I stuck out my tongue.

"Anyway—what are you guys doing after school?" Sora asked us.

"I have volunteer hours tonight." I told him, putting my pencil on the desk.

"And I have weight lifting." Ventus added. Sora groaned.

"Aw man!" He complained, causing more looks. It was a wonder why the teacher didn't yell at them. More footsteps came over to join us. I looked up to find Roxas standing with his hands in his pockets, staring at Kairi and Sora.

"Why are you—"

"Don't ask." Ventus told him. We knew there was no answer to the question. I ran a hand through my hair as I slouched into my chair.

"Well—why did you want to know anyway, Sora?" I asked him, pulling out my sketchbook.

"I wanted to know if you guys wanted to come to a movie, but apparently you have stuff to do. What about you, Roxas?" Sora asked, obviously oblivious to Kairi's frantic look. Roxas did notice however.

He shook his head. "I also have volunteer work tonight." He told Sora, who pouted in response. I giggled at him, nudging his leg under the desk.

"Cheer up Sora." I said. "We can hang out tomorrow." He pouted some more and Kairi pushed his shoulder lightly, giggling.

"I guess." Roxas's eyes scrolled over to me and he spoke.

"I'll see you tonight." He told me, getting ready to turn around and go back to his lab. I nodded.

"Okay." Kairi's eyes scanned over to me but she didn't say anything. I knew I had to tell her we got together. Sora and Kairi both knew that I liked Roxas. But—I didn't know how to tell them it was official.

* * *

"I'm not ready yet." I said into the phone as I was pulling out my painting clothes. Tifa said she had some painting work for me to do today, so I had to make sure I dressed appropriate.

"How long does it take you?" Roxas's annoyed voice chimed in through the phone.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm a girl." I heard a puff of air being blown near the receiver and my stomach dropped slightly. "Are you smoking?" I asked him.

He was silent for a moment. "Yeah."

"Oh."

"I'm trying, Namine." He told me. "It's the first I've had all day."

"I understand." I pulled out a pair of paint stained jeans and a white shirt. "It's hard." It was silent on the phone for a moment while I slipped on my clothes, staring at the floor. I knew it was hard for him, and I just had to accept it. He was trying for me, and that is what mattered.

"I'll be there soon, alright?" Roxas asked as I heard him walk outside.

"Alright. See you soon." I told him. We hung up and I walked into the bathroom, pulling my hair up into a messy bun before walking down the stairs to wait for Roxas. Running a hand through my hair, I thought I should be happy, but I wasn't. I had Roxas and I wasn't with someone that I didn't have feelings for. That was the good part. But now my world has come crashing down around me, making me come to the realization that I needed to find out more about my parents. My dreams were scaring me at how vivid they were.

After a few moments, the sound of the motorcycle sounded in the distance and I walked outside, locking the door behind me. I smiled at the blond waiting for me in the driveway as he held out the helmet.

"You look ready to work." He snorted.

"Shut up." I slipped the helmet onto my hair before wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling myself close to him. He pushed the bike backwards before turning around in the street, taking off towards the highway to Northwood Heights.

* * *

"Are you and little Roxas together?" Tifa asked me as we painted the front hall. I dipped the roller into the paint bin before trying to hide a smile from my face. "You are!"

"Yeah. It's been a little while now." I told her, painting a bright white on the dull gray color that was currently there.

"That's cute. Is he getting better?" She asked me.

"Well we just started talking about it, and he promised me he would work on it. So all I can do is trust him." I watched the paint roll onto the wall smoothly as I sighed.

"He's a nice kid. I know he won't hurt you." Tifa turned around, flashing me a smile. "I have some news for you too."

"What?"

"Zack finally proposed to me last night." She beamed and I gasped, turning around.

"No way!" I screeched before letting out a high pitched giggle along with her. "I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks. I'm so happy. He hasn't got the ring yet, but he really made it a big deal." She smiled, looking at her empty ring finger. "Money is hard to come by."

"He still cares and wants to marry you. That's what counts."

"Yeah." It was quiet for a moment before I looked back up at her and smiled.

"Oh my god!" I giggled again, jumping up and down.

"Jesus. I can hear you in the gym." Roxas's voice echoed in the hall as I watched him walk over. He had on black sweats, gym shoes, and a white shirt on.

"You're just jealous." Tifa stuck her tongue out at him as she went back to paint the wall.

"What's the big deal?"

"Can I tell him, Tifa?" I asked, paint roller still in my hands. She nodded to me with a hidden smile. "She's getting married."

"Really?" He gasped and a small smile went to his face. "I'm happy for you."

"Thanks, Roxas." Tifa told him before handing him the roller. "Finish for me. I'm going to make dinner." Roxas sighed and nodded, taking the roller and painting the wall.

"I hope they invite me to the wedding." I giggled, finishing up the second coat.

"You serious?" Roxas laughed.

"Of course! I love weddings, so cute." I laughed once again before Roxas turned around and kissed me on the lips, smiling.

"Is Jean picking you up tonight?" He asked me once we finished the wall. Tifa was cooking another pizza and got sidetracked on the phone so we finished the hallway.

"Yeah. She still doesn't trust me to walk home alone." I said the word 'alone' in quotes.

"You not planning on telling them that we're—"

I shook my head. "Not for a while. They don't like you."

"I see."

"They just have to get to know you. Remember—I didn't like you either." I chuckled. "You see how that changed."

"I hope they don't fall in love with me." He laughed and I blushed, pushing him.

"That's so wrong." I crossed my arms, turning away from him.

"I'm just kidding." He pulled me into his arms, resting his head on mine. I unfolded my arms and wrapped them around his middle, placing my head on his chest. He kissed my forehead before pulling away, and I pouted.

"What are your plans for the rest of the week?" I asked him as we cleaned up the mess, getting ready to leave.

"Besides this?" He looked at me and I nodded. "Axel and I are hanging out Wednesday, and the Saturday there is some party. Kairi will probably tell you about it and drag you to it." He chuckled.

"Oh god." I pilled the paintbrushes into the store room. "I hope she doesn't."

"Why not? You're not half bad on the dance floor." He smirked.

"I don't want to be near alcohol." I said, eyebrows raised.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on you."

"You can't get drunk either." He pouted. "What? If you're going to keep an eye on me, you can't be wasted. If you are going to drink, get a ride home." I smiled.

"Care about my safety?"

"Of course. I don't want to lose you." I told him, pulling my bag over my shoulder. It had some leftover pizza and some tools and papers from today. He pulled me into another quick kiss.

"You won't." I saw headlights pull up outside and a loud honk startled me. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Always." I told him, giving him one last hidden kiss before running outside to jump in the car.

* * *

Edited December 2013.


	17. Chapter 17

Today was an Institute day at Prep, so we all had the day off. Which I was immensely grateful for. I had been through a lot these couple of weeks. I don't think anyone has caused me as much stress as Roxas. He was lucky that I was in love with him.

Luckily, in actuality, Roxas had only done cocaine twice and his body wasn't prone to addiction that quickly, so it wasn't hard for him to throw away all of that particular drug. That was one of my biggest fears. I knew that Marijuana wasn't a particular addictive drug, however it depends on what one means by addictive. Roxas was having a hard time breaking the habit of smoking pot, especially because he didn't enjoy how he felt when he wasn't smoking it. But, I didn't expect instant results. As long as he is putting in effort to stop is all that I need. And he has been. He hasn't been smoking weed as often as he used to, however there are instances where I have found him high. All I can do is trust him.

It was now almost a month after Roxas and I had officially gotten together. I still hadn't mentioned the official announcement to Kairi or Sora. I knew they were going to be mad if I didn't tell them. It's just, the thought of bringing it up never crossed my mind. I knew I had to tell them today when we all met up at Sora's for breakfast. Either that or they already knew and didn't say anything.

I cleaned up, getting dressed in black tights, a black dress with short sleeves and a white peter pan collar, while my hair was left to fall loosely on my shoulders. I slipped my feet into some black loafers before grabbing my bag and hurrying down the stairs. Kairi asked me to get there earlier so we could plan the twin's birthday party before they arrived as well.

I quickly made my way to Sora's, his mother kindly letting me in and letting me know that they were already in the kitchen. The breakfast was prepared and I could just help myself to the multitudes of food that she cooked. I thanked her before walking into the kitchen, seeing Sora and Kairi munching on pancakes and sausage.

"Morning!" Sora yelled with his mouth full, spraying food on the table. Kairi scolded him before giving me her own greeting herself. I grabbed a plate of food before settling down at the table with them. Kairi stared at me for a long time as I ate, causing me to raise an eyebrow at her.

"What?" I asked, chewing my eggs.

"Don't you have something to tell us?" Kairi wiggled her eyebrows. Sora just rolled his eyes, but I could tell he wanted to know too. And I knew exactly what they were talking about. I let out an embarrassed sigh.

"I didn't mean to hide it—it just never came up," I explained with a blush on my face.

"Oh, I'm not mad that you didn't say anything. I kind of figured it out," she told me.

"Yeah, you guys have been grossly cute this past month, it wasn't hard to guess," Sora added on.

Kairi took a drink of her water before continuing. "So how did you guys get together? That's what I want to know. Because I thought Roxas was too stubborn to admit his feelings."

"I kind of gave him no choice but to admit them," I told the two. "I went with Axel and confronted him about the cocaine, started to cry, told him how I felt, and then everything kind of fell into place."

Kairi placed her hands on her cheeks. "Did you tell him you loved him?" She purposely avoided the drug topic, which I was thankful for.

"Maybe…" I blushed, and she squealed. Sora put a hand to his ear, scrunching his face.

"_Anyway," _Sora said, trying to calm Kairi down, "this weekend is Ven and Roxas's birthday. They are turning the big eighteen, so Kairi wanted to get everyone together, as you know."

"Oh yeah," I mumbled into my food. "That's the party that Roxas mentioned to me at the beginning of the week."

"Right. We gave them the wrong time so they will show up a bit later than the rest of us. It's going to be a huge surprise," Kairi added on, talking a little lower just in case Ventus or Roxas walked in.

"Where is this party going to be at?" Sora mentioned a month ago that Aerith liked to throw small parties for them, but I assumed since Kairi wanted to invite everyone, their little house wouldn't do the trick.

"It's going to be at my house," Kairi chimed in. "My parents are cool with it, and it's big enough."

I nodded as I chewed. That sorted all that part out.

"Who is all invited?" I asked.

Sora piped up. "Well, the usual people. Riku, Olette, Hayner and them. But I talked to Kairi a little bit and we were thinking of inviting Axel and Demyx too, only if they didn't bring anyone else. Though of course, people will get wind of this and there might be some uninvited people as well."

I nodded happily. "Axel's a good guy. And I met Demyx once too, he's very nice."

Just as we finished that conversation, the sound of shoes on hardwood floor caught our attention and we all turned our heads to see who the vistor was. Much to my delight, it was Roxas. He was wearing ripped up blue jeans, a white shirt, a red and black unbuttoned plaid shirt with a black leather jackets and a black beanie on his head. I smiled happily at him and he returned it before his eyes landed on the other two in the room.

"You guys were quiet in here, I thought you weren't even here," Roxas said skeptically.

"Well, you know how much I hate people talking with their mouth full," Kairi said, trying to cover up the fact that we were whispering about the party. "Grab some food and sit down. We have to wait for the other one that looks like you."

He shrugged and grabbed some food off the counter before settling in a chair next to me. He pulled out his phone, wallet, and a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket and placed it on the table so he didn't crush them when he sat down. He leaned over and placed a kiss on my cheek before beginning to eat.

"How cute," Kairi squealed, finishing up her meal. I rolled my eyes at her.

"Shut up," I mumbled as Roxas's free hand came to rest on my thigh. He had been doing that a lot lately, touching me. I didn't really know how to interpret it as he didn't really talk about it. He just did it. His thumb ran circles over my thigh, causing me to blush lightly, but luckily, the other two lovebirds at the table didn't notice, as they were busy running over the plans for the day.

"What _are _we doing today anyway?" I asked. I truthfully had no clue why we were all together.

"We are going bowling!"

I thought back to when I first met everyone. I met them all at the bowling alley thanks to Kairi. I gave her a smile and I could tell that she remembered.

"I'm not that good," I mentioned, leaning my face into my hand.

"You'll still beat Sora like last time," Kairi added in.

"Shut up! She didn't even finish the game! She left halfway through!" Sora exclaimed.

Roxas shot me a confused look but I just rolled my eyes and shook my head.

"Why all the bickering this early in the morning?" A voice said.

Ventus strolled in from around the corner. He was wearing a plain black hoodie, black jeans, and purple gym shoes. His hands were in his pockets as he raised an eyebrow at Kairi and Sora.

"Who said you could wear my shoes?" Roxas asked in a mock angry manner.

"Don't leave them on my side of the room them," the other twin replied, grabbing his own food and pulling up a chair at the head of the table.

"Hurry up and eat Ven! You're the last one here and we all want to go bowling!" Sora suddenly yelled, getting up and throwing his plates into the sink. I could tell that he was just itching to prove all of us wrong.

* * *

"Sora, you suck," Ventus said with his hands on his hips. We were all staring at one of the lanes, watching the poor ball go straight into the gutter as it left Sora's fingers. The brunette gave a pout before waiting for his ball to try again.

I sat next to Roxas. The two of us had a while before our turn again, so I stared at him with a smile on my face. He was looking straight ahead for a little bit before he turned to look at me out of the corner of his eye.

"What?" he asked with a playful smirk on his face.

"You look healthy," I chimed with a light blush on my cheeks.

"What?" he turned to face me then, confused.

"I don't know really," I said then. "You just have a lot of color in your face, and your eyes look happier."

"My eyes?"

I nodded. "I remember when I first saw you, your eyes really stood out to me. They were stern and hard. Kind of scary. But now—they aren't like that anymore."

He smiled, squeezing my cheeks together, puffing out my lips so he could kiss them. "I'm happier 'cause I have you."

I blushed and he leaned in again to whisper in my ear.

"I can still be scary though," he whispered seductively into my ear, causing a shiver to run down my spine and a feeling to stir in me that I had never felt before. I turned cherry red as he pulled away, a smirk on his face. I pouted at him.

"Stop flirting over there, it's your turn, Namine," Kairi yelled from the table that held our food.

I sighed before pushing myself up to grab the pink bowling ball. I stood, holding the ball in position, trying to figure out how I wanted to throw it.

"Don't fuck up," I heard Ventus said as I released the ball, causing it to get skewed and go into the gutter. I turned around, a glare evident in my usually peaceful eyes. I tightened my jaw.

"Oh, she's going to kill you," Roxas said as he grabbed a slice of pizza from the table.

"I hate you so much," I said, holding another bowling ball in my hands as I stood in front of him. "Do that again and I will drop this on you."

Ventus snickered as I walked back and made my second throw, knocking down seven pins. I shot him another glare and Roxas let out a laugh.

"Dang, Namine, you got a hate for Ven now?" Sora said as Roxas made his way to do his throw.

"No, he's just a butthead," I told them. Ventus laughed a little before throwing a friendly arm around my shoulder.

"Oi!" Roxas said as the ball was released down the lane, getting him a strike. "Hands off!"

Ventus stuck out his tongue. "We look the same; she can just pretend I'm you."

We both knew Ventus was kidding however. He had accepted my feelings for Roxas quite quickly and was happy for us. I just knew that he liked to push his brothers' buttons. Roxas scoffed, pushing Ventus towards the lane to take his turn before his arm took a place on my shoulders. I leaned into his side.

"Wanna hang out after this?" Roxas asked me quietly as Sora was trying to convince Ventus to throw the ball down the lane in a stupid fashion, probably to help his own score.

I looked up at the blond.

"I have to go buy your birthday present, though," I told him. I had forgotten to buy him and Ventus something, so I needed to do the shopping since Saturday was their birthday.

"You don't need to _buy _me anything," he told me. "Having someone as wonderful as you is enough."

I rolled my eyes at his behavior.

He reached into his pocket as he pulled away, pulling his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. "I need to go have a smoke."

Although I was unhappy, I nodded. He placed a hand on my cheek.

"I didn't have one all morning," he replied, noticing my unhappiness.

"I know."

He began to walk towards the doors that led outside as he turned around to look at me again.

"Seriously, though, let's hang out!" he called to me.

I rolled my eyes again.

"Fine! I can always go shopping tomorrow!"

* * *

_Hey. HEY. It's been three years. THREE YEARS. I went through and edited the entire story, fixing plot holes and problems that made it hard for me to continue. So, I suggest going through and scanning previous chapters if you have thankfully stuck around. There aren't too many major changes though. I didn't go and edit my writing because that would have taken forever. I just changed some ages and minor events. And some grammatical things. But, hello! I hope this surprised you all!_


	18. Chapter 18

Bowling ended in a terrible disaster. Kairi ended up winning the match, followed closely by Roxas, then Ventus, myself, and Sora. Sora threw a huge fit, saying his ball was rigged and that it wasn't a fair outcome. But we all knew he was just that bad. He was good at other things, but bowling was not his strong suit. The plan was that we all were going to grab some food to eat, but since we sort of ordered food at the bowling alley, we all just ended up going our separate ways. Ventus said that he had some sort of appointment to go to, whatever that meant. Sora and Kairi decided to go get some ice-cream, and Roxas and I made the journey back to his house.

I hadn't been to the Aoki's since I had been dating Roxas. I wasn't even sure if Aerith knew. If she did, it was because Ventus told her. I was pretty sure Roxas didn't say anything. The drive there was a familiar sight now. I had been to Northwood Heights a good handful of times now, so the scenery was familiar and not as shocking. I wasn't too afraid of the place either, though I still knew it was not safe.

Roxas parked his bike on the corner of the street and the two of us made our way up the sidewalk to the familiar, cozy place that I considered a second home. I let out a small yawn as he unlocked the door to their small room. He shot a raised eyebrow at me.

"Tired already?" he asked me humorously.

"No, I'm just bored," I teased him, knocking shoulders with him slightly. He clicked his tongue before rolling his eyes, stepping aside so I could kick off my shoes. I looked around for Aerith, but she was nowhere in sight.

"Ah, my mom is probably spending some time with Tifa. I know the two of them love talking about wedding shit or whatever," he shrugged, rubbing the back of his head, carrying his shoes into his bedroom. I followed closely, nodding in understanding.

"Does she know that we are together?" I asked him shyly, blushing as I said it.

He grinned, "nope, not yet. I figured you wanted to lay it on her."

Sitting down on his bed, I stretched my arms behind me, propping myself up. "Okay, good, because I wanted to be the one to tell her 'I have stolen your son's heart!'" I laughed aloud.

Roxas collapsed on the bed next to me, expect he fell all the way backwards, his head coming close to hitting the wall as it fell on the mattress. "You didn't steal it," he said, "I gave it to you."

"No, I'm pretty sure I stole it. You didn't give it to me willingly, silly."

He let out a theatrical sigh before turning to look at me. I made eye contact with him and started to shrink under his intense gaze.

"What?" I asked him nervously.

He didn't reply however. He just kept his blue eyes trained on mine. It unnerved me. Not in a bad way. I wasn't afraid or anything. Just a sense of nervousness and feeling I couldn't recognize shot through me and I didn't know how to react. I couldn't figure out why he was staring at me so intensely. However, when his eyes flickered to my lips, it was then I knew what he wanted.

I never occurred to me until this moment. Roxas and I haven't shared a real kiss yet. We've shared quick pecks and small kisses, but that was about it. Nothing more than that. Even when we were alone, Roxas never really made advances like that towards me. He never pushed me to kiss him any longer than what we've done. And it never occurred to me to kiss longer than that. It's not that I didn't want to, I just never really thought about it.

I bit my lip out of nervousness, and that apparently was something that Roxas liked, as he eyes darkened slightly and he licked his lips.

No words passed between us during these few moments.

Roxas sat up so he was eye level with me. His intense gaze left my lips and looked into my eyes again, as if asking permission. My face heated up at the unspoken question, however, I tried to be brave and not shy away. Everything around me went silent as I saw him decide to lean in, his eyes closing ever so slowly. Mine also closed in response as I waited for him to kiss me. When he leaned in, his nose brushed against the side of mine and his lips hovered above mine so I could barely feel them. The anticipation was killing me. Sucking in a breath, instinctually, I leaned forward to try to get the kiss out of him, to which he happily obliged. The contact sent a shock through my body.

I sat up properly then, placing my hands in my lap instead of behind me. Roxas raised his hand to cup the side of my face while his other hand reached for the ones in my lap, taking them into an embrace.

This was my first _real _kiss with Roxas. And I learned that he kisses just as rough as he looks.

He pressed harder then, trying to deepen the kiss between us and my brain was becoming hazy. I didn't know what to do with my hands or my body, so I just allowed Roxas to show me what to do. He started to pull away slightly, lightly taking my bottom lip between his teeth before then capturing my lips in a second kiss. His other hand then left my own hands before slowly resting on my hip. I then turned my body to face him better, one leg coming to rest on the bed as the other still hung off the side. I wasn't sure what to do with my hands, so I buried them to his shirt, gripping it as my heart pounded in my chest. I could feel Roxas smile on my lips and it made my face light up.

His lips finally broke from mine and I took a sharp intake of breath, making Roxas chuckled lowly. He gave small butterfly kisses to my cheek, trailing down my chin before reaching my neck. Both of his hands came to rest of my waist as he then pulled me into his lap. It startled me at first, but the way that he held me and kissed me made me feel so at ease and relaxed that it wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be. He face came level with mine before he looked into my eyes, his nose bumping the tip of mine.

"What?" I asked, shyly, though I tried to maintain the best eye contact I could. He looked at my eyes before trailing down, staring at my flushed cheeks and swollen lips. He looked back up and rested the side of his face on mine. I could feel his breathing in my ear.

"You're so damn beautiful, Namine," he whispered, causing me to blush more.

Although, the most natural reaction would be to draw him back into a kiss, I couldn't help but just throw my arms around his neck and bury my face into his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" he asked quickly. I could tell by the tone of his voice that I believe he thought that he upset me. I nodded into the crook of his neck before pulling away, my blue eyes shining with happiness.

"I'm just so happy," I smiled at him.

He leaned in again to kiss me and I tried to adjust myself on his lap before I froze, feeling something against my leg. I wasn't naïve. I was well aware of what I was feeling. I just never expected it or have been in this situation before. Roxas could tell what I got apprehensive about, as I saw one of the first real blushes cross his face.

"Ah, sorry…" he muttered, embarrassed. "It's not like I can help it."

It was then that it hit me.

Roxas wasn't a virgin. He knew what he was doing and yet here I was, freaking out about a perfectly normal body function that I should have expected to happen if we were going to fool around like this. Although I was well aware of Roxas's past, I still couldn't help but feel the slightly bit uncomfortable and jealous to the fact that Roxas wasn't a virgin and I was.

"What are you thinking about?" Roxas asked then with a sigh. I think he already knew what was running through my head. I scooted off of him, carefully to keep my dress straight as he then turned to look at me.

"Sorry," I apologized, looking down at my feet.

"Don't be," he smiled, turning my head to look at him. "I'm not trying to force you into anything you aren't ready for. I just—I really want to kiss you. Like, really bad."

I smiled at him. "I know. I'm just being stupid. I know I'm not as experienced as you and I guess that makes me a little jealous."

I clasped my hands together and looked into my lap, my face burning. "It's just—if the time ever comes where we do _that, _I just think it's not fair that you get to be my first but I don't get to be yours."

Roxas rubbed my hair affectionately. "I can't change what I've done in the past Namine. That time with Xion—" he sighed. "That time with her, it wasn't really out of love or anything. I just think it was both of us confused, and young, and not really knowing how to handle our emotions towards each other. I don't regret it or anything…it's just, it happened. She was my best friend and always will be, but it didn't _mean _anything too intense, understand? If and when we have sex, it's going to _mean _something, okay?"

He shot me one of his grins and I visibly relaxed.

"Just because I wanted to make out with my girlfriend doesn't mean I wanted to bang her this very moment, okay? Though that doesn't sound half bad," he wiggled his eyebrows.

"Roxas!" I slapped his shoulder. "That's inappropriate!"

He laughed loudly before wrapping his arms around my waist, pulling me down onto the bed next to him. I let out a yawn then.

"Why are you so tired?" he asked me as I stared up at the ceiling. He was lying on his side, twirling my hair between his fingers.

"I haven't been sleeping well," I admitted.

Roxas turned my face to look at him, a serious expression was held on his own.

"Are you having nightmares?" he asked me. I had mentioned to him a while ago that I was having more and more frequent dreams of my parent's accident. Then the dreams started to turn into the nightmares as they became more vivid and understandable. I still didn't know who the culprit was or when my parent's died or how they died. All I know is that we were hit by a speeding car and that the impact caused me a lot of pain and there was a lot of screaming. I didn't know anything else.

"Yeah, but it isn't anything I can't handle, Roxas, really," I told him. I didn't want him to worry about me or anything that might distract him from getting better. I wanted him to be the best he could. I didn't want to weigh him down with my own problems that were too similar to his own.

"Didn't I tell you before, Namine?" he looked at me. "Stop holding it all in like I do. It's okay to talk about it if you need to."

I nodded, before cuddling into his chest. "I know," I mumbled. "I just don't want to talk about it yet. Let's just take a nap."

The two of us dozed off not to long after that. However, the nap didn't last long as Ventus came home and jumped on top of both of us, startling us both awake and causing Roxas to punch him in the face. Watching the two of them wrestle on the floor made me sigh.

All I knew was that I really needed to get everything together for Roxas's birthday.

* * *

_Update! This chapter really came out the complete opposite of what I wanted. I wanted to originally have the RokuNami fluff and then a whole section with Kairi interaction, but I figured I'd throw that into the next chapter. So here is a whole chapter devoted to the two love birds. I'm not that good writing fluff or anything like that, but I hope it was alright and not too painful to read. Anyway, if you didn't already realize, I changed the ages from 15 to 18 so they are a lot older than they originally were because I started this story when I was younger and now that I'm older I'm like, wtf, not these needs to be fixed. So yeah!_

_Please review!_


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